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' Bh Ni 
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He SPIRIT OF 
GOD ye We We we 


Dee By the Rev, ~ | ‘ 
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN 


Author of God’s Methods with Man, The 
Hidden Years at Nazareth, Discipleship 
Life Problems * % * * 


NEw YORK CHICAGO TORONTO 


Fleming H. Revell Company 


Publishers of Evangelical Literature 


CoPpyRIGHT 1900 
BY 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


To 
THE FRAGRANT MEMORY OF 
GEORGE H. C. MACGREGOR, M.A. 
WHO IS NOW AMONG THOSE WHO KNOW 
IN THE LIGHT OF THE 
SEVEN SPIRITS BEFORE THE THRONE 

AND 

IN COMRADESHIP AND COMMUNION WITH WHOM 

THE IDEA OF SUCH A TREATISE WAS SUGGESTED 


I DEDICATE THESE PAGES 


In this age of faith in the natural, and disinclination to the 


supernatural, we want especially to meet the whole world with. 


this credo: 


““T believe in the Holy Ghost.” 
WirLLiAM ARTHUR. 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTORY 
PAGE 
I. SIGNS OF THE TIMES . Ea MeN int en € 8 
BOOK I 
THE SPIRIT OF GOD 
Il. THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT : 223 


III. THE RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 34 


BOOK II 
IDEAL CREATION 
IV. THE SPIRITIN CREATION . : : “AO 
V. THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 64 
BOOK TET 
THE SPIRIT PRIOR TO PENTECOST 


‘VI.. FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH Vee . 83 


VII. DURING THE MISSION OF THE MESSiAH 06 
Vil 


vill CONTENTS 


BOOK IV. 
THE TEACHING OF CHRIST CONCERNING 
THE SPIRIT 
VIII. THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT tetinn 


IX. THE CHARACTER OF THE SPIRIT. ° 
X. THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT ° ° 
XI. THE RESULTS OF THE SPIRIT’S COMING 


BOOK V 
THE PENTECOSTAL AGE 


XII. PENTECOST ° . . ° e 
XIII. THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH ° ° 
XIV. THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD . e e 


BOOK VI 
THE SPIRIT IN THE INDIVIDUAL 
XV. THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT : : 
XVI. THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT : : 
XVII. THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT : ° 
BOOK VII 


THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION 
XVIII. YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 
XIX. BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 
XX. RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 


PAGE 
bee 
hie 


122 
12/4 


129 
142 
154 


169 
184 
196 


. 213 
. 226 
. 297 


Notr.—The Revised Version is used, and the term Floly 


Spirit in preference to Holy Ghost. 


INTRODUCTORY 


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SIGNS OF THE TIMES 


URING recent years two movements have been 
noticeable in the thought of men outside the 
Christian Church. First, there has been the develop- 
ment of materialism. The teachings of Darwin, Hux- 
ley, Tyndall, and Spencer have tended to the denial 
of the spiritual in man. Thousands of people who 
have never read their books have been influenced by 
their outlook upon life. Moreover, a great many of 
their first positions have been accepted and taught, and 
are held until this moment, without any due allow- 
ance being made for subsequent statements, which have 
proved that their teaching consisted in the suggestion of 
hypotheses, rather than the declaration of ascertained 
facts. According to such teachers all the phenomena 
of human life are to be accounted for wholly within the 
range of matter. It is admitted by them that matter 
is in itself indestructible; but it is affirmed that the re- 
arrangement of it that takes place at death destroys the 
identity of human beings. In a more cultured and re- 
Il 


12 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


fined form, and with gleams of hope in the form of 
doubts, men have been gradually drifting towards ma- 
terialism; and the effect of this has been seen in the 
average human life apart from the influence and teach- 
ing of Christianity. Earthly, sensual, devilish, are 
words which fitly describe the vast mass of life apart 
from God. Some of the old forms of fleshly life have 
indeed ceased, and there is in the minds of men a new 
respect for personal character, as a result of the pres- 
ence of Christianity in the world. A correct view of 
the condition of the masses of the race would reveal 
the fact that for the most part life is being lived in the 
realm of the fleshly, the material, the perishing. Thou- 
sands of men, while professing to hold the orthodox 
creed, are yet living in a practical atheism, and a con- 
sequent denial of their own spiritual nature. 

The second movement outside the Church has taken 
the form of a revolt against materialism, and has found 
its expression in attempts to discover the spiritual—to 
unfold its laws, and to declare its activities. Spiritual- 
ism and theosophy are witnesses to this movement. 
Mrs. Annie Besant is one of the most remarkable in- 
stances of it in individual life. There was a time when 
she—sickened, alas! by the inconsistencies with which 
she came into contact within what was called, and 
falsely called, Christianity—turned her back upon the 
faith of her early years. She found refuge in denial of 


1 Jas. ii, 15. 


SIGNS OF THE TIMES 13 


high and sacred things; and lived wholly, to all appear- 
ance, outside the realm of the spiritual. For her to 
have found her way back to the acknowledgment of the 
spiritual in any form is a gain. It is, however, a re- 
markable fact that one who might have been spoken 
of as the high-priestess of materialism, in a rebound. 
from that position, has taken a leap into the realm of 
credulity. Belief in a Mahatma, somewhere amid 
Himalayan heights, who has never been seen, requires 
a stretch of credence far greater than a belief in the 
living Christ of God, Whose presence on the earth 
nineteen hundred years ago is an indisputable historical 
fact, and Whose abiding presence is witnessed by in- 
numerable transformations of character during the 
centuries. 

This change of front on the part of so gifted a wo- 
man is a startling illustration of the fact that, side by ~ 
side with the materialistic movement that has character- 
ized the past half-century, there has also been a marked 
revolt against that movement. Indeed, the revolt 
against materialism has carried a certain section of the 
community into the opposite extreme. They are de- 
claring that matter is not, and only mind really exists. 
The tendency of the past was to deny spirit. That has 
been proved to be absolutely untenable, and now it is 
the fashion to deny matter. This is evidenced by the 
vagaries of Christian science falsely so called. 

This groping in the darkness without, has had its 


i4 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


counterpart within the churches. A wave of rational- 
ism, originating largely in Germany, has been sweeping 
over the religious world. Its effect has been the swamp- 
ing of spiritual ideas and the extinguishing of the fires 
of Christian zeal. There are churches utterly devoid of 
the true spiritual tokens of men and women converted 
— to God, and transformed into the likeness of Jesus 
Christ. Such churches, being destitute of the compas- 
sion of the Christ for the needs of men, all too sadly 
prove that the materialistic element, has crept within 
their borders, in the form of rationalistic theology, the 
canker-worm of spiritual life. 

But just as outside the Church there has been a spirit 
of revolt, so within, contemporary with this rationalistic 
movement, there has been manifested a marked and 
_ wonderful revival of interest in the ministry of the Holy 
| Spirit. In 1856 William Arthur issued his Tongue of 
Fire. It was indeed a fiery message to the churches; 
but it was before its time. Not that it was out of place. 
Every great movement has its forerunner. Every great 
development of thought starts with some lonely watch- 
man upon the mountain, who catches the first ray of 
coming day, and tells the dwellers in the valley of its 
approach. The book was, in that sense, a book before 
its time; yet men read it—our fathers tell us—on their 
knees. There followed a period of waiting, a time dur- 
ing which it appeared as though the book were dead. It 
was dead as the seed-corn dies, only to issue in a glo- 


SIGNS OF THE TIMES 15 


rious harvest. During the last quarter of the century, 
men in all sections of the Christian Church have spoken 
and written upon this great theme of the ministry and 
work of the Holy Spirit. Dr. Scofield, of Northfield, 
says: More books, booklets, and tracts upon that subject 
have issued from the press during the last twenty years. 
than in all the time since the invention of printing. The 
truth thus proclaimed has resulted in new life within 
the churches; and everywhere eager souls are enquir- 
ing after fuller, more definite, more systematic knowl- 
edge of this great ministry of the Spirit. The min- 
istries that are forceful in the accomplishment of defi- 
nite results in the interests of the kingdom of God to- 
day, are the ministries of men who are putting the 
whole burden of their work upon the Holy Spirit of 
God,—of men who, however different the subjects with 
which they deal, and however different their theological 
outlook may be in certain respects, are nevertheless per- 
petually realizing that the Holy Spirit is to be thought 
and spoken of as a Person rather than an influence. 
Wherever the Spirit of God is being enthroned in 
preaching and in all Christian work, and having His 
rightful place as the Administrator of the things of 
Jesus Christ, apostolic results are seen to follow. 

Here, however, as always in the history of fallen man, 
the Divine movement has had its counterfeit. 

The devil has two methods of procedure with regard 
to the living truth of God. First, he seeks to hide the 


16 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


vision. When that is no longer possible, when truth 
with its inherent brilliance and beauty is driving away 
the mists, then the devil’s procedure is that of patronage 
and falsification. Taking it out of its true proportion, 
he turns it into deadly error. 

The Reformation, for which we still thank God, was 
a return on the part of men, to whom God gave vision, 
to the great fundamental truth of justification by faith. 
The central gospel fact, He that believeth on the Son 
hath eternal life,’ was rediscovered. For long and 
Weary years Satan had kept that truth out of sight ; but 
when God raised up Martin Luther and others, the 
devil immediately adopted, adapted, and misapplied it. 
In the wake of the Reformation came the damnable 
heresy of antinomianism. Its teaching was, that if men 
are justified by faith, conduct is of no account; man 
sins perpetually, and nothing can alter the fact; but be- 
ing justified by faith, the actual life and character are 
nothing. Thus a truth taken out of its proper setting, 
and stretched to undue proportions, became a heresy 
almost more fearful than that from which justification 
by faith was a deliverance. 

Again, some years ago God raised up men to give 
renewed utterance to the truth of the premillennial com- 
ing of Jesus Christ. The effect produced was that of 
a purifying hope, and believers were recalled from 
worldliness and indifference, to the attitude of pilgrims 
girded for the King’s business, and waiting for His 

1John iii. 36. 


SIGNS OF THE TIMES 17 


appearing. Then immediately followed innumerable 
distortions of the truth by the powers of evil; and im- 
pertinent predictions of dates have almost brought it 
into general disrepute. Instead of the whole Church 
being purified, strengthened, and revived in prospect 
of events the time for which God Himself only knows, 
many are afraid to give any attention whatever to the 
subject, because it has been brought into disrepute by 
attempts to discover a date of which the Master said: 
Oj that day . .'. knoweth no one,.......not even... . 
the Son.’ 

Just as it was in these instances, so has it been in 
regard to the subject of the work of the Holy Spirit. 
The greatest peril which threatens the truth of the 
Spirit’s personal ninistry to-day, arises from the ad- 
vocacy of the truth by those who are not careful to dis- 
cover the mind of the Spirit. With the revival of 
interest there have been launched a number of wholly 
unauthorized systems, which have brought bondage 
where the Spirit would have brought liberty. Men 
have been misapplying phrases connected with this 
subject. The baptism of the Spirit, the anointing of the 
Spirit, the indwelling of the Spirit, the sealing of the 
Spirit, the filling of the Spirit—all these, based upon 
Scripture, have been taken out of their setting, and 
made the current phraseology of a new system of 
thought, which is a new form of legalism. 

It is asserted, for instance, that a man who is con- 


1Mark xiii. 32. 


18 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


verted may be baptized of the Spirit, ifi—and then after 
the if comes the statement of certain conditions which 
constitute a legalism as disastrous as was that of the 
Judaizing teachers among the churches of Galatia. We 
are told that if a man will abandon this, that, and the 
other—and in many cases will cease to observe laws 
of life which are purely natural—he may be filled or 
baptized with the Spirit. All this is contrary to the 
teaching of the New Testament. The baptism of the 
Spirit is always used in the New Testament with refer- 
ence to regeneration, and never with what is often 
spoken of to-day as the second blessing. 

The filling of the Spirit through the fuller faith of 
the believer is often, but not necessarily a second bless- 
ing. All that is necessary for fuller realization of the 
Divine life becomes the birthright and property of be- 
lievers directly they are born again of the Spirit of 
God. Nothing is more to be deprecated than the habit 
of formulating systems upon disjointed Scripture 
phrases apart from their connection with the context. 

There is one sure and infallible guide to truth, and 
therefore one, and only one, corrective for error, and 
that is the Word of God. That, in this series of studies, 
is the court of appeal. May the Holy Spirit, without 
Whom there is no understanding of the Word, grant a 
clearer comprehension of His Person, of His work, and 
of human relation thereto! In approaching the subject 
the mind should be disabused of all foregone conclu- 


SIGNS OF THE TIMES 19 


sions and prejudices, and a stand taken upon the old 
prophetic dictum: To the law and to the testimony! if 
they speak not according to this word, surely there is no 
morning for them.’ There is no revelation of the ac- 
tivities of the Spirit of God, or of the spiritual world, 
save the revelation that comes through the Book. 


%JIsa. viil. 20. 


Sar et 
Tah 


BOOK I 
THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


aI 


Fountain of Love! Thyself true God! 
Who through eternal days 

From Father and from Son hast flow’d 
In uncreated ways! 


O Majesty unspeakable! 
O Person all Divine! 

How in the Threefold Majesty 
Doth Thy Procession shine! 


\ Proceeding, yet of equal age 
With Those Whose love Thou art— 
Proceeding, yet distinct, from Those 
From Whom Thou seem’st to part. 


An undivided Nature shared 
With Father and with Son; 

A Person by Thyself; with Them 
Thy simple essence One. 


Bond art Thou of the other Twain! 
Omnipotent and free! 

The consummating Love of God! 
The Limit of the Three! 


Thou art a Sea without a shore; 
Awful, immense Thou art,— 

A Sea which can contract itself 
Within my narrow heart. 


And yet Thou art a Haven, too, 
Out on the shoreless sea, 

A Harbour that can hold full well 
Shipwreck’d Humanity. 


Thou art an unborn Breath outbreathed 
On angels and on men, 

_ Subduing all things to Thyself, 

We know not how or when. 


O Light! O Love! O very God! 
I dare not longer gaze 
Upon Thy wondrous attributes 


And their mysterious ways. 
F. W. FAser. 


22 


II 
THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT 


EFORE attempting to consider the work of the 

Holy Spirit through the history of the human 

race, it is necessary to understand, so far as it is pos- 

sible, His personality and His relation to the Trinity. 

Only by a clear understanding of what the Scriptures 

teach concerning these matters, will it be at all possible 
to comprehend the mission and work of the Spirit. 

Not that it is possible to perfectly understand the, 
personality of the Spirit or His relation to the Trinity. 
These things are beyond the complete comprehension 
of minds that are finite. They must be accepted as 
declarations of a Divine revelation, the final explana- 
tion being impossible. It is possible and necessary to 
discover what the Scriptures of truth have declared 
about the Spirit in these two respects. _ 

This chapter deals with the first point, the personality 
of the Spirit, under two divisions. 

nt 


v 


24 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


I. The Holy Spirit a Person. 

II. The Holy Spirit a Divine Person. 

The term Person immediately introduces an insur- 
mountable difficulty—that, namely, of attempting to 
express the Infinite in finite terms. 

It has been argued that personality and absolute ex- 
istence are contradictions; that God cannot be, at one 
and the same time, a Person and Infinite. That argu- 
ment is based upon the assumption that the term Person 
is capable of concise and final definition. 

That is a false assumption. It supposes that perfect 
personality exists in a human being. This is not so. 
God alone has perfect personality. That of every other 
being is limited. In other words, God is not a magnified 
man, rather it may be said that man is a limited god. 
God is not in the image of man: man is in the image 
of God. Although, at first, it may appear as though 
this were a mere play upon words, yet a careful consid- 
eration of the statement will prove that no final and 
definite deductions concerning God can be made from 
a study of human life. 

If man is the one, the final, the absolute unit, then 
the argument holds that God cannot be a Person and 
Infinite. If He alone be final and absolute, then per- 
sonality in man is to be looked upon as being imperfect 
and limited. When a man declares God cannot be ab- 
solute and a Person, he does so because his only view 


_ of personality is the view which he has of himself or of 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT 25 


his brother. It is possible to form some conception of 
Divine personality by a study of the human, because 
men are made in the likeness of God; but wherever 
the endeavour is made to build up the Divine from 


the suggestion given in man, it must be remembered - 


that the factors of personality in man are finite, while 
in God they are infinite. 

Four things are contained within the realm of per- 
sonality—Will, Intelligence, Power, and Capacity for 
Love. A person is a being who can be approached, 
trusted or doubted, loved or hated, adored or insulted. 
These essential parts of personality are limited in hu- 
man beings: the will has its limitations, the intelligence 
has its limitations, power has its limitations, love has 
its limitations. 

It is not unthinkable that there may be illimitable 
will, intelligence, power, and love, and that yet the per- 
sonality shall remain. Neither is it unthinkable that 
there may be a Being Who can be approached, trusted 
or doubted, loved or hated, adored or insulted, having 
all these elements of personality in infinite measure. 
Granted that in the Divine there are to be found the 
elements that exist in other rational beings, it is surely 
not unthinkable that these may be infinite in the Di- 
vine, while yet they are finite in man. 

The Christian position is that it is perfectly easy 
to understand that man, within a circumscribed area, is 
a picture of the Divine; but that yet, by so much as 


iv 


26 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


he is circumscribed and limited, he is not himself 
Divine. In this sense man was made in the image 
of God; but that of which he is the image is like him, 
yet unlike him. It is unlike him in the fact that all 
that is found in man of essential majesty and grandeur 
in limited degree, is to be found in God Himself un- 
limited and illimitable. The Holy Spirit, then, is a 
Person, possessed of Will, Intelligence, Power, and 
Capacity for Love. 

In the third century of the Christian era, Paul of 
Samosata advanced a theory denying the Divinity of 
Christ, and regarding the Holy Spirit as an influence, 
as an exertion of a Divine energy and power. He at- 
tempted to finally explain the terms of the New Testa- 
ment and of Scripture; and in his attempt to say the 
last definite, formulated word, he found he must cut 
away certain supernatural mysteries that surrounded 
the doctrine of God as contained in revelation; and de- 
clared that there was no Trinity, that Jesus was not 
Divine, and that the Spirit was simply the influence 
moving out from God, the energy of God exerted upon 
other people. About the time of the Reformation two 
men, Lelius Socinus, and his nephew Faustus Socinus, 
revived the theory, and many accepted it. 

The growth and decay of what is known as direct 
Socinianism is not the subject now under consideration. 
These facts in the history of the Church are men- 
tioned in order that it may be understood whence came 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT 27 


the teaching, the influence of which was like leaven, 
spreading far more widely through the Church than 
the circle of those who actually called themselves So- 
cinians. This circle of people had a well-defined doc- 
irine to teach. The great mass of Christian people 
refused to accept the doctrine; but, alas! passed uncon- 
sciously under its chilling influence, and unknowingly 
almost the whole Church came to think of the Spirit 
of God as an influence, if not to speak of Him as 
such! 

In the Authorized Version the personal pronoun 
which refers to the Holy Spirit is translated by the 
neuter it, an index of the trend of thought among 
Christian people. Men prayed of the Spirit as of i, 
an influence, an energy, proving that the Socinian 
thought had chilled the zeal and the enthusiasre of 
Christian doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit. 

One of the most remarkable signs in the present time 
of the revival of the truth of the personality of the 
Spirit, is the reintroduction in the Revised Version of 
the masculine pronoun wherever the Spirit is referred 
to. In that apparently simple and insignificant matter 
there is a clear revelation of the fact that God is calling 
His people everywhere to a recognition of this most 
important doctrine of the personality of the Spirit. 

A list of the passages containing the references of 
Jesus to the Holy Spirit in the Synoptic Gospels and in 
the Gospel of John will be found as a footnote. Let 


a3 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


them be carefully perused.1| There are two lines of 
teaching which run through these utterances. First, 
the most solemn warning ever uttered in the hearing of 
men had reference to the Holy Spirit. In the Gospels 
of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Christ affirms that His 
own words may be rejected, that His own Person may 
be spoken against, and that these things shall be for- 
given to the sons of men; but that they who refuse the 
teaching of the Spirit can find no forgiveness, because 
the final apostasy of such, the final turning of the back 
upon the work and mission of the Spirit, constitutes 
what our Lord speaks of as eternal sin. Whosoever 
shall blaspheme agawmst the Holy Spirit hath never 
forgiveness, but 1s guilty of an eternal sin*—a deep, 
searching, and awful thought. The man who can sin 
against the Holy Spirit, refusing His teachings, de- 
liberately turning his back upon, and his will against, 
the message of the Holy Spirit, is in danger of pass- 
ing into a realm in which his sin is not temporary and 
transient, but is eternal and abiding. Such were the 
most awfully solemn words which fell from our Lord’s 
lips. It is not conceivable that a man should sin 
against a mere influence or energy, so as to bring him- 
self into danger of eternal sin. There is in every word 


| * Matt. x. 19, 20, xii. 28*, 31, 32, xxii. 43, xxviii, 19*. Mark iii. 29, 
xii! 36, xiii. 11, xvi. 16 *, Luke iv.018 *, xi. 13 *, xii. 10-12, 49 #8 
xxi. 15, xxivi“48*. John iii. 3-8 *, iv. 1o%14 *, vw21 *, vii. 37 *¢ 
vii. 37, 38 *, xiv. 16, 17, 26 *, xv. 26 *, xvi. 7-11, 13-15 *, xx. 22 *. 
Acts i. 5,8%*. (* Peculiar to this Gospel.) 

? Mark iii. 29. 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT 29 


of the warning evidence of an assumption in the mind 
of Christ of the personality of the Holy Spirit. 

The Gospel of John contains Christ’s systematic 
teaching concerning the Holy Spirit. He speaks of 
Him as the Paraclete. This is the title of a Person. 
It is indeed one of the incommunicable, untranslatable 
words of Scripture. Neither Comforter nor Advocate 
fully expresses its meaning. Both, and even some- 
thing beyond, would be required to do this. Much 
would have been gained if no attempt had been made 
at translation, the word itself becoming the most fa- 
miliar name of the Spirit. 

In these discourses, when speaking of the Paraclete, 
Jesus does not, in one single instance, use the word 
which can be construed as indicating thought of the 
Spirit as an influence. He shall teach, He shall bear 
witness, He shall convict, He shall guide.t These ac- 
tivities attributed to the Holy Spirit must be the ac- 
tivities, not of an influence depending upon another 
and separate will, but the activities of a Person, of One 
Who unites within His own Being all the essential 
elements of personality, Will, Intelligence, Power, and 
Love. Whether in the solemn warnings of the Syn- 
optic Gospels, or in the teachings concerning the mis- 
sion of the Spirit in the Gospel of John, the fact is most 
evidently set forth, that in the mind of Christ the Holy 
Spirit was thought of, not as an influence, an energy 


4John xiv. 26, xv. 26, xvi. 8, 13. 


~ 


— 


30 ‘THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


merely, but as One capable of exercising functions and 
doing deeds which were impossible to any other than a 
Person. 

Again, the Holy Spirit is not only a Person, but a 
Divine Person. Another heresy arose in the Church 
in the fourth century. Arius, a presbyter of Alexan- 
dria, taught that God is one eternal Person; that He 
created a Being infinitely superior to the angels, His 
only begotten Son; that this only begotten Son of God 
did in His turn exercise His supernatural power by the 
creation of a third Person, that third Person being the 
Holy Spirit. 

The difference between Socinianism and Arianism 
lies in the recognition by the latter of the personality of 
the Spirit while denying His proper Deity. According 
to Arius, the Holy Spirit is a Person, a created Person; 
and if created, then not Creator; and if not Creator, 
then not Divine. The Nicene Creed was drawn up and 
adopted as a corrective to this error of Arianism, which 
had obtained a firm hold in the early Church. 

Most assuredly the Scriptures teach not only th 
personality of the Spirit, but His Divine personality. 
The unity of two passages in the Old and New Testa- 
ments throws light upon this subject. 

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I 
am a ian of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a 
people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the 
King, the Lord of hosts. . . . And He sad, Go, 


THE PERSONALITY OF THE SPIRIT 31 


ana tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand 
not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.* 

The prophet had come into the presence of God, and 
was undone by the vision. 


The New Testament contains an exposition of that — 


vision of Isaiah. 

And when they agreed not among themselves, they 
departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well 
spake the Holy Spirit by Isatah the prophet unto your 
fathers, saying, 

Go thou unto this people, and say, 

By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise un- 

derstand. 

Paul declared that it was the Holy Spirit Who ut- 
tered the words which Isaiah distinctly says were spoken 
by the Divine Being. Thus the interpretation of the 
Old Testament by the New reveals the fact of the 
Divinity of the Holy Spirit. 

A new covenant was promised long before the com- 
ing of the Messiah.* In the Epistle to the Hebrews 
the old promise of the covenant of Jehovah is identified 
with the new dispensation of the Spirit.* It is evident 
- that the Persons at first sight apparently different are 
identical, and that the Spirit spoken of in Hebrews 
comes in fulfilment of the prophecy uttered by Jere- 
miah. 


11sa. vi. 5. ?Acts xxviii. 25 26. ®Jer. xxxi. 31-34. * Heb. 
X. 15-17. 


32 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Again, the works attributed to the Holy Spirit must 
be the works of Divinity." Genesis declares that out 
of the chaos, cosmos was brought by His brooding and 
force. In the Gospel of John regeneration is declared 
to be His work.* Paul distinctly states that God will 
quicken our mortal bodies through the Spirit.’ Crea- 
tion, regeneration, resurrection, these are works which 
can only be trought about by infinite power, and there- 
fore the Spirit is not only a Person, but a Divine 
Person. 

Omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, attri- 
butes that appertain only to God, are all attributed to 
the Spirit.’ 

The Scriptures then teach that the Holy Spirit is a 
Person, having all the Divine attributes and able to do 
all Divine works. The mystery is acknowledged, and 
it is very profound. To finally explain it is impossible ; 
but this impossibility of explanation is to be accounted 
for by human limitation and by the fact that the finite 
can never grasp the Infinite. The facts must be rev- 
erently accepted as forming an integral and necessary 
part of the system of revealed religion. To deny the 
personality of the Spirit, and to deny the Divine person- 
ality of the Spirit, must eventuate—as it has done in 
every system where it has been attempted--in denial 
of the Divinity of the Son, and in the denial of the 


*Gen, 1.:2. * John fits. * Rom: vin, 11. “Rom. vii. 26,27. 
7 Cor. di. 20) &2s 2 Cor: xi 11. 


ft PERSONALITY OF ‘THE SPIRIT 33 


Divinity of the Son there must also be included—as 
there always has been—a denial of the atoning work of 
the Son. The doctrines of the Son—His Cross and 
Passion—and of the Spirit—His personality and Di- 
vinity—are closely connected, and one cannot be inter- 
fered with without detriment to the other. Denying 
these truths, the whole fabric of revealed religion breaks 
down. 


IIL 


THE’ RECATION: OF “THE SPIRIT TO THE 
TRINITY 


HE doctrine of the Trinity is one of the declared 
facts of Holy Scripture of which no perfect ex- 
planation is possible to minds that are finite. The idea 
of one Essence subsisting after a threefold manner, and 
in a Trinity of relationships, finds nothing in the phe- 
nomena of nature upon which it can fasten as a suffi- 
cient symbol. There have been many attempts to give 
the mind of man an understanding of this mystery by 
some such symbol. The mystics attempted, by anal- 
ogy, to reconcile the doctrine to human reason. They 
made use of such figures as those of the light, the radi- 
ance, and the heat of the sun; the fountain, the flux, 
and the stream of the river; the root, the stem, and 
the flower of the plant; the intellect, the will, and the 
feeling of man; or, perhaps most familiar of all, the 
human being, consisting of spirit, soul, and body. 
They declared that in all these things, and indeed 
34 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 35 


throughout nature, there is a perpetual reproduction of 
that which is the essence of the Divine—Trinity in 
Unity. 

All these illustrations suggest a Trinitarian possi- 
bility ; but if employed as final symbols, they only serve 
to mystify. They are insufficient, and differ from the 
declared facts so radically, that the impression they cre- 
ate, as to the great underlying fact of Divinity—One 
in Three and Three in One—is vague and evanescent. 
As in the case of the personality of the Spirit, so here; 
the things which are evident are faint and incomplete 
suggestions of the facts concerning the Infinite. The 
Scriptures contain a progressive revelation of the doc- 
trine ; but when the last word has been said, there is no 
attempt made to explain the mystery. All that they 
give is a declaration of the fact, without attempting to 
give that which would be incomprehensible, a definition 
or explanation that is final. | 

The first hint of plurality in the unity of the Godhead 
is found in the words: And God said, Let Us make man 
im Our image, after Our likeness. To claim that as a 
definite and final statement of the doctrine of Trinity in 
Unity would be false. It is the privilege of those who 
live in the light of the New Testament to view the Old 
Testament therein. All things were made by Him; 
and without Him was not anything made that hath been 
made.2 This refers to the work of the Word, the 


1Gen. i. 26. ?John i. 3. 


36 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


eternal Son, in creation. It was by His intermediation 
that the worlds were formed in the beginning. 

Thus the Bible story of creation reflects the presence 
of the three Persons in the Trinity—the Father, as 
original Source; the Son, as Intermediary; the Spirit, 
as the Medium through which creation came into 
being." 

The truth is still further developed in the words: 
So shall they put My name upon the children of Israel.? 
The emphasis should be laid upon the word so,—SO 
shall they put My name upon the children of Israel. 
The method indicated is to be found in the three pre- 
ceding verses. 

The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 

The Lord make Hs face to shine upon thee, and be 

gracious unto thee: 

The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and 

give thee peace.” 

This is the trinity of benediction in unity, My name 
in threefold repetition. It is not probable that the 
priest of the old dispensation, in pronouncing that bene- 
diction, had a clear understanding of the truth of the 
Trinity in Unity, but a hint was enshrined therein 
which prepared the way for future development. Thus 
in the priestly benediction of Numbers, there is an ad- 
vance upon the suggestion of Genesis.* 


Gen. i. 1. John i, 3... Gen. i. 2. Num. vi. 27. ®*Num. vi. 
24-26. * This priestly benediction of the Old Testament has its 
fulfilment in that of the New: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 37 


The messages of the prophets contain suggestions 
on the subject: In the year that King Ueziah died I 
saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, 
and fi1s train filled the temple. Around: Him stood 
the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he 
covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, 
and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto an- 
other, and said, Holy, holy, holy, 1s the Lord of hosts.® 

Isaiah was permitted to have a vision of the King, 
high and lifted up. He heard the doxology of the hid- 
den place, the cherubim and seraphim chanting the 
praise of the Eternal, and they sang Holy, holy, holy, 
1s the Lord of hosts, a threefold ascription of praise to 
the one Person. 

In this prophecy also is to be found perhaps the most 
clear statement of the doctrine of the Trinity that the 
Old Testament contains: Come ye near unto Me, hear 
ye this; from the beginning I have not spoken in secret; 
from the tune that it was, there am I: and now the Lord 
God hath sent Me, and His Spirit.8 There is an im- 
portant alteration in this passage from the Authorized 
Version, which reads: The Lord God, and His Spirit, 
hath sent Me. The Me here is the coming One of 


Whom the prophets wrote and spoke—the great De- 
liverer, the Messiah, Jesus. The Authorized Version 


and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit, be 
with you all, Here also the Trinity is named. 2 Cor. xiii. 14. 
* Around, (not above, as in the English Version) ... 
Dr. G. A. Smith. 
7Tsa. vi. 1-3. *Isa. xlviii. 16. 


38 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


makes it appear as though Christ was sent by God and 
the Spirit; but in the Scriptures He is never so spoken 
of. This change in the Revised Version is of the 
utmost importance; for it contains a prophecy of the 
coming of Christ and the dawning of the dispensation 
of the Spirit. God hath sent Me, and His Spirit. Here 
the Trinity is distinctly revealed, not as a doctrine, but 
incidentally in the midst of prophecy. All that the 
New Testament unfolds in its beauty is suggested in 
this prophecy, uttered centuries before the coming of 
the Messiah—God sending Son and Spirit. 

The New Testament takes up the suggestion of the 
Old, making it clear and plain: And Jesus, when He 
was baptized, went up straightway from the water: and 
lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the 
Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon 
Him; and lo, a voice out of the heavens, saying, This 1s 
My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased.*| The 
voice of the Father is heard from the heavens, an- 
nouncing His pleasure in the Son, while the anointing 
Spirit descends upon Him. This is a manifestation of 
the one God in His threefold personality. Thus, at 
the outset of Christ’s public ministry, the truth of the 
Trinity was declared by a solemn manifestation, though 
the men around did not then comprehend the deep sig- 
nificance of the event. . 

The Paschal discourses contain the Lord’s full teach- 


* Matt, Mii.0\16,0 17. 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 39 


ing on the subject of the Spirit. This is of sufficient 
importance to demand special attention, and a subse- 
quent chapter will be devoted to it.* 

One more reference claims attention in this section. 
The Master having finished His work on Calvary; the 
Resurrection being accomplished; and the Ascension 
imminent; He gave to His disciples the commission 
under which they were to serve. In connection with 
this, He committed to them the great baptismal for- 
mula, which contains the most simple and concise state- 
ment of the Trinity that is to be found in the whole of 
Scripture: Baptizing them into the name of the Father 
and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.2, The phrase of 
the, in each case clearly marks the separation of person- 
ality, but the singular number of the name, by which 
these are prefaced, marks the unity of the Godhead. 
That baptismal formula is the consummation of all pre- 
vious suggestion, and the standard of all subsequent 
teaching concerning the Trinity. | 

The declarations of Scripture, then, may be sum- 
marized thus:—In one essential Godhead there coexist 
three Persons, consubstantial, coequal, and coeternal. 
This mystery cannot be explained nor defined, because 
it is beyond the grasp of the finite; and no Saas 
is attempted in the inspired Book. 

Accepting the doctrine of the Trinity, it is now com- 
petent most reverently to enquire what Scripture 


1John xiv., xv., xvi. * Matt. xxviii. 19. 


4° LHESSPIRITLOF-GOD 


teaches concerning the relation of the Holy Spirit to the 
Trinity. . 

The Holy Spirit is always spoken of as the third 
Person in the Trinity. 3 

In the historical revelation the last personality re- 
vealed is that of the Spirit. That of the Father was the 
supreme point in the creation and history of the Jewish 
people: The Lord our God 1s one Lord.1 Then there 
came the revelation of the Son; and lastly, as the con- 
summation of His mission, came the revelation of the 
personality of the Spirit. 

Again, in the actual facts of the awe-inspiring mys- 
tery of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit is not first. 

It is distinctly stated that the Spirit is sent; and 
Christ declared that the Spirit proceedeth from the 
Father. This order can never be reversed. The 
Father cannot be spoken of as being sent of the Spirit, 
neither can He be said to proceed from the Spirit; 
therefore, in a sense hard to understand, but distinctly 
announced, the Holy Spirit cannot be the first Person 
in this mystery of the Trinity. 

Nor can He be the second Person therein. The 
Son is spoken of as sending the Spirit from the 
Father, and as Himself sending the Spirit.2 Within 
the realm of Divinity the Son is never said to be 
sent by the Spirit. It is said of Jesus that the 
Spirit drove Him into the wilderness; but that was in 


* Deut. vi. 4. *John xiv. 26, xv. 26. *John xy. 26, xvi. 7. 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 41! 


His representative capacity asa Man. In His Divinity 
He is sent by the Father, for the accomplishment of the 
Father’s work; but He is never spoken of as being sent 
by the Spirit. Consequently, the Spirit, sent by the Son 
is the third Person within the Trinity, in the order in 
which these Persons move in the mighty majesty of their 
wondrous activities. The great creeds of the Church 
have caught up the idea of the Spirit proceeding from 
the Father and from the Son. While there is no direct 
and positive statement of the kind, still the very argu- 
ment of the Lord’s own teaching, as recorded in the 
Gospel of John, coincides with that expression of the 
truth. 

The term third must be used with most careful limi- 
tations. As used with reference to the Persons in the 
Godhead, it does not imply inferiority. Once in the 
writings of Paul he reverses the order, and names the 
Spirit first: One Spirit, even as also ye were called im 
one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one bap- 
tism, one God and Father of all. Upon another occa- 
sion he changes the order again, and places the Spirit in 
the second place: Now I beseech you, brethren, by our 
Lord Jesus Christ, and by the love of the Spirit, that ye 
strive together with me in your prayers to God for me.* 
The word third is not used in the sense of inferiority. 
Perhaps that fact will most surely be understood by re- 
membering that the term third has here no reference to 


1Eph. iv. 4-6. 7? Rom. xv. 30. 


42 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


time. The time element must be eliminated from all 
consideration of Divine things. It is very difficult to 
do this. Speaking of the Father, and of the Spirit pro- 
ceeding from the Father, unconsciously, but none the 
less certainly, the time element enters into the concep- 
tion. It may be argued that there can be no procession 
save that which has a beginning. If that be true, 
neither can there be a Source from which procession is 
made, which has no beginning. When dealing with the 
things of God, time is not; it finds no place in the 
boundless Being of the Eternal. The procession of the 
Spirit from the Father is as eternal as is the Father 
from Whom the Spirit proceeds. 

The relation of the Spirit to the Father is declared in 
the words: The Spirit proceedeth from the Father.* 
He is the gift and outmoving of the Divine Essence, the 
Eternal Spirit. This defies analysis. It is a truth de- 
clared, which remains an impenetrable mystery. Men 
have no right to make any attempt to discover that 
which is not revealed. It is the simple declaration of 
the Word of God, that the Spirit proceedeth from the 
Father ; and there the matter must be left. 

The relation of the Spirit to the Son is indicated in 
the words of Jesus in which He declared that the Son 
receives from the Father, and the Spirit therefore pro- 
ceedeth through the Son.? Professor Swete, in a paper 
read before the Church Congress several years ago, in 


1John xv. 26. ?John xiv. 16, xv. 26. 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 43 


well-chosen words stated, with as much clearness as is 
possible, the great mystery of the Spirit's relationship to 
the Son. These are his words: The Son is thus the 
Intermediary of the self-communication of God. fis 
mediation in creation and in grace rests ultimately on 
His mediation in the mystery of the Holy Trimty. The 
mediation in creation, and’ the mediation in redemption 
are based upon the fact, that Scripture declares, that in 
an inscrutable manner, in a way that defies definition, 
the Son is intermediary between Father and Spirit, in 
that great and sublime and magnificent mystery of the 
Trinity itself. 

Here, again, the fact of limitation of language must 
be borne in mind. These statements refer to eternal at- 
titudes, and consequently they are dateless. 

With great reverence and solemnity the question of 
the function of the Holy Spirit within the Trinity may 
now be considered. 

No such consideration would be possible or proper if 
it were not based upon the fact that a statement is made 
with regard thereto in Scripture: For who among men 
knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man, 
hich is in him?! This is the apostle’s analogy. There 
immediately follows the statement of a truth of the ut- 
most importance: Even so the things of God none 
knoweth, save the Spirit of God. These words clearly 
reveal the fact within the mystery of ‘the Trinity—the 


arte dcor. il. 13. 


44 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


‘Spirit is the seat of the Divine consciousness. The 
eternal Spirit knows the things of the eternal Godhead: 
The Spirit searcheth . . . the deep things of God.* 

That statement leads to the inner heart of this great 
mystery; and from it a most important deduction is 
drawn. Seeing that the Spirit of God is the seat of Di- 
vine consciousness, He is also the Spirit of revelation. 
As it is the Spirit of God Who knows the things of God, 
it must of necessity be the Spirit Who unveils and re- 
veals those things, as much as is necessary and possible, 
to those outside the marvellous and mysterious circle of 
the Deity. In that great fact, beyond perfect compre- 
hension, lies the secret of the inspiration of Scripture, 
and of the presence and work of the Spirit in the Church 
and in the world. 

If any person should accept this attempt to examine 
one of the greatest mysteries of our most holy religion, 
feeling that now all is clear, then the attempt has sadly 
and awfully failed. This subject must be left where 
God has left it—a revealed mystery, not the revelation of 
a mystery. That is to say, revelation has declared a 
mystery; revelation has not given the explanation of 
that mystery. The mind of man could never under- 
stand, even if the most simple language were used, the 
Trinity in the Unity of the Godhead, or the relation of 
the Persons in the Godhead to each other. But, so far 
as it is necessary and possible for man to see it, things 


* 1 GOfs ii. | (r0, 


RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE TRINITY 45 


which eye saw not, and ear heard not, and which entered 
not into the heart of man ,.. unto us God revealed 
them through the Spirit.* 

The statement may thus be made in brief words. 


There is one God. There are three Persons within the — 


Unity. The Holy Spirit is third in position, for ever 
proceeding from the Father, through the mediation of 
the Son. That Holy Spirit is the Consciousness of 
God, and therefore the Revealer of God. 

While these things are too high and too wonderful for 
perfect exposition, yet, so far as is necessary for redemp- 
tion and life and final perfecting, God has allowed the 
light of the glory of the inner facts of His own Being to 
fall upon the human mind. 


a's Cor,’ 1.9, 10. 


be 


Fair are the flowers and the children, but their subtle sugges- 
tion is fairer. 

Rare is the rose-burst of dawn, but the secret that clasps it is 
rarer; 

Sweet is the exultance of song, but the strain that precedes it is 
sweeter ; 

And never was poem yet writ, but the meaning outmaster’d the 
metre. 


Never a daisy that grows, but a mystery guideth the growing; 

Never a river that flows, but a majesty sceptres the flowing; 

Never a Shakespeare that soar’d, but a stronger than he did 
enfold him, 

Nor ever a prophet foretells, but a mightier seer hath foretold 
him. 


Back of the canvas that throbs, the painter is hinted and 
hidden ; 

Into the statue that breathes, the soul of the sculptor is bidden; 

Under the joy that is felt, lie the infinite issues of feeling; 

Crowning the glory reveal’d, is the glory that crowns the 
revealing. 


Great are the symbols of being, but that which is symboll’d is 
greater; 

Vast the create and beheld, but vaster the inward Creator; 

Back of the sound broods the silence, back of the gift stands 
the giving; 

Back of the hand that receives, thrill the sensitive nerves of 
receiving. 


Space is as nothing to Spirit, the deed is outdone by the doing; 
The heart of the wooer is warm, but warmer the heart of the 
wooing ; 
And up from the pits where these shiver, and up from the 
heights where those shine, 
Twin voices and shadows swim starward, and the essence of 
life is Divine. 
RICHARD REALF, 


48 


IV 
THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 


HE work of the Spirit in creation, and His per- 

petual presence and manifestation therein, are 
subjects full of fascination, and yet strangely neglected. 
So much attention has been given to the work of the 
Spirit in its regenerative aspect, that His generative ac- 
tivities have been in a large measure overlooked. The 
origin and the preservation of everything in nature are 
spiritual. 

No lily-muffled hum of a summer bee _ 

But finds some coupling with the spinning stars; 

No pebble at your foot but proves a sphere, 

No chaffinch but implies the cherubim. 

.... Earth’s cramm’d with heaven, 

And every common bush afire with God; 


But only he who sees takes off his shoes— 
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.* 


The sacred Writings abound in statements with re- 
gard to this aspect of the Spirit’s work. 

What magnificent figures are contained in the words 
of the Psalmist! 


1Mrs, E. B. Browning. 
; 49 


5° THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


He bowed the heavens also, and came down; 

And thick darkness was under His feet. 

And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: 

Yea, He flew swiftly upon the wings of the wind. 

He made darkness His hiding-place, His pavilion 
round about Him; 

Darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. 

At the brightness before Him His thick clouds passed, 

Hailstones and coals of fire.* 


It is evident, from a careful reading of this Psalm, 
that it is a declaration of the perpetual presence of God 
in all such manifestations. Wherever thick darkness is, 
it is under the feet of God; whenever the wind passes 
with swift impetuosity, He flies upon the wings thereof; 
wherever darkness is, it is God’s hiding-place, a pavilion 
round about Him; whenever the darkness is dispersed, 
it is before the brightness of His rising. In every 
gleam of the glory of nature there is the evidence of an 
ever-present God. 

The final words of that great doxology which Isaiah 
heard from the inner temple are of great interest in this 
connection:1 In the year that King Uzziah died I saw 
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and 
His train filled the temple. .Around* Him stood the 
seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he cov- 
ered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and 


1Ps. xviii. 9-12. 7?Isa. vi. 1-3. ® See footnote, p. 29. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 51 


with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and 
said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole 
earth is full of His glory. The uplifted Lord is the 
centre of adoration in the courts of heaven; but not 
there only is His splendour seen—the whole earth is 
full of His glory. 

A marvellous declaration of the fact of the presence of 
God in all nature is to be found also in the great The- 
ophany of the Book of Job.1 

For the purposes of this study, however, it will be 
sufficient to consider certain definité statements of Scrip- 
ture, in which the work of the Holy Spirit in creation is 
clearly set forth in varied aspects. 

First compare the earliest reference to the Spirit with 
one in the prophecy of Isaiah :— 

And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was 
upon the face of the deep: and the Spirit of God moved 
upon [or as the margin gives it, was brooding upon] the 
face of the waters.’ 

But the pelican and the porcupine shall possess it; and 
the owl and the raven shall dwell therein: and He shall 
stretch over it the line of confusion, and the plummet of 
emptiness.® 

Exactly the same Hebrew words are used in each case 
to describe the desolation. The word translated waste 
in Genesis is translated confusion in Isaiah; the word 
translated void in the one case is translated emptiness in 


7Job xli., xlii, *Gen. i. 2. *Isa. xxxiv. 11. 


52 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


the other. This comparison throws light upon the 
story of creation. 

The first picture is that of the Spirit brooding over 
chaos. Science agrees that the earth must have been in 
such a condition as this before the appearance of man. 
How this condition of things arose, whether through 
some mighty catastrophe whelming a previous order, or 
through the omnific word of God, no man can tell; both. 
science and revelation are silent. These opening words 
of the Book of Genesis introduce this planet while yet 
waste and void, and declare that, for the accomplishment 
of the change from this condition to that of order, the 
Spirit brooded over the face of the waters. He acted as 
the Administrator of the will of God, as expressed by 
the word of God. The will of God is that order should 
supersede disorder. The Word of God announces that 
will, beginning with the first utterance: Let there be 
light.1 By the brooding of the Spirit over the chaos the 
light came. That is the unvarying order of the activi- 
ty of God in creation. 

This is not an account of the first creation of matter. 
Concerning that, man has no definite knowledge. 

In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth. 

‘And the earth was waste and void.? . 

How long the interval between these verses no man 
can tell. Scripture makes no announcement thereupon, 


1Gen. i. 3. 7%Gen. i. 1, 2. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 53 


and the declarations of science are but surmises. But 
when the present order was established, it was by the 
Spirit of God brooding upon confusion and emptiness, 
as the Power through which the Divine will was real- 
ized. The earth as it is to-day is therefore the direct | 
outcome of the action of the Holy Spirit. 

Another of the Psalms is full of suggestiveness :— 

By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; 

And all the host of them by the breath of His mouth." 

The word breath here might with perfect correctness 
be written with a capital letter—the Breath of God’s 
mouth. Here again is revealed the will of Jehovah, ut- 
tered by the Word of Jehovah, and accomplished by the 
_ Breath of His mouth; but the sweep of thought is great- 
er than before. It is not a description of the bringing 
of order to one small planet, but the record in a sentence 
of the creation of the heavens and all the host of them. 
The phrase includes all the myriad wonders of the uni- 
verse around. By the Word of God, and by the Breath 
of His mouth, came the systems of which man is just 
beginning to learn that in their entirety they are undis- 
coverable. The point at which astronomical science has 
now arrived is an acknowledgment, that beyond the ut- 
most reach of anything which can be studied through 
the agency of the telescope, lie illimitable space and in- 
_ numerable worlds. isc 
This has been forcefully stated by Dr. Pierson in his. 


2Ps, xxxiii. 6. 


54 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Many Infallible Proofs, and the whole paragraph is of 
such a nature that it is here inserted at length :-— 

The fact of the vast host of stars is a fact of modern 
discovery. Hipparchus, about a century and a half be- 
fore Christ, gave the number of stars as 1,022, and 
Ptolemy, in the beginning of the second century of the 
Christian era, could find but 1,026. We may ona clear 
night, with the unaided eye, see only 1,160, or, if we 
could survey the whole celestial sphere, about 3,000. 
But when the telescope began to be pointed to the 
heavens, less than three centuries ago, by Galileo, then 
for the first time men began to know that Jeremiah was 
right when he made the stars as countless as the sand on 
the sea-shore. When Lord Rosse’s instrwment turned 
its great mirror to the sky, lo, the number of visible stars 
increased to nearly 400,000,000! and H erschel com- 
pares the multitude of them to glittering dust scattered 
on the black background of the heavens. When John 
Herschel, at the foot of the dark continent, resolves the 
nebule into suns, and Lord Rosse, as with the eye of a 
Titan, finds in the cloudy scarf about Orion “ a gorgeous 
bed of stars,’ and the very Milky Way itself proves to 
be simply a grand procession of stars absolutely with - 
out number—how true is the exclamation of Jeremiah, 
600 years before Christ, 2,200 years before Galileo; 
“The host of heaven cannot be numbered!”* Who 


taught Jeremiah astronomy? 


1Jer. xxxili. 22. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 55 


All these unnumbered hosts were made by the Word 
of the Lord and the Breath of His mouth. 

Take now, one of the passages in the Book of Job. 
The words are those of the patriarch himself :— 

By His Spirit the heavens are garnished; 

His hand hath pierced the swift serpent.* 

The meaning of the passage is obscure, but light is 
thrown upon it by the context :— 

'He stirreth up the sea with His power, 

And by His understanding He smiteth through 

Rahab.? 

That is a perfect picture, in miniature, of a storm- 
swept sea, over which the dark clouds hang dismally. 
Then follow the words: By His Spirit the heavens are 
garnished. It is a vision of the bringing back of the 
blue and the light to the heavens, after the sweeping of 
a storm; and in this strange expression, His hand hath 
pierced the swift serpent, Job borrows one of the East- 
ern nature-myths, in illustration of the fact that the 
calm which follows the storm in nature is—actually and 
symbolically—the work of the Spirit of God. Job was 
in fact, or in imagination, looking out upon a storm- 
tossed sea; he saw it suddenly calmed, the clouds dis- 
persed, and the heavens garnished with beauty. The 
reference to the flying serpent is difficult of understand- 
ing. One says that the reference is to the sign of the 
zodiac; another that it describes the long train of the 


1Job xxvi. 13. 7Job xxvi. 12. 


56 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


cloud, as the wind of the Spirit disperses and drives it 
away; and yet another that the term has reference to 
the whole arch of heaven, as pierced by the hand of 
God. Between these views it is not possible to decide, 
but certainly it is a figure of speech, most probably indi- 
cating the driving away of the storm-clouds like trail- 
ing serpents, as the heavens smile in sunlight after the 
storm is spent. The main statement is, however, per- 
fectly clear—that the transformation of beauty is 
wrought by the Spirit of God. 

Another interesting statement is found in the 
prophecy of Isaiah concerning the agency of the Spirit 
in nature: The grass withereth, the flower fadeth,; be- 
cause the Breath of the Lord bloweth upon it.+ This 
declaration is at first sight almost staggering. That the 
Spirit of God comes as a genial summer zephyr upon 
nature is easy to understand; but it is difficult to believe 
~ that He comes also as the fierce blast of God. Yet it is 
certainly true. He brings death as a process, and a 
necessity. The pitiless east wind has in it the breath of 
health. Let there be no more east wind, no more north- 
east wind, no more biting, keen blast of death, and what 
would become of nature? Surely Kingsley entered into 
the spirit of this when he sang :— 

Welcome, wild North-easter{ 
Shame it ts to see 


Odes to every zephyr, 
Ne’er a verse to thee. 


2Isa, xt. 7. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 57 


Through the black fir forest 
Thunder harsh and dry, 

Scattering down the snowflakes 
Off the curdled sky. 


Come; and strong within us 
Stir the Viking’s blood, 

Bracing brain and sinew; 
Blow, thou wind of God. 


When the east wind blows, and the flowers are nipped, 
and the blade of grass is curled and shrivelled almost as 
if by the blast of heat, then the Spirit of God is sweep- 
ing the ground and preparing for the springing of life 
in response to the kiss of His gentler wind. 

In close sequence consider the words :— 

Thou sendest forth Thy Spirit, they are created ; 

And Thou renewest the face of the ground.* 

That which follows the death-wind of the Spirit is 
His life-wind. The first is Winter; the second is 
Spring. Nothing ever finds its way to Spring 
save through Winter. The budding of life and 
the flowers that blossom upon the sod in Spring-time are 
the result of the cold east wind that swept the hills and 
the valleys during Winter days. These are not mere 
figures of speech. The cold and icy wind blows under 
the direction of the Spirit of God; and the wind which 
kisses earth, and makes it smile in flowers, is the mes- 
senger of the self-same Spirit. 

The prophecy of Ezekiel opens with a magnificent 


1Ps. civ. 30. 


58 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


piece of imagery, of which no final nor exhaustive expo- 
sition is here attempted. There is, however, no more 
gorgeous vision of the glory of God to be found in the 
whole of His Book. To Ezekiel, the bard and prophet, 
there was granted a vision of that glory in the great 
chariot of Divine movement and life. The vision em- 
braced the creatures of the earth, and the appearances of 
the heavens. The colours of earth and of heaven were 
seen. Beryl is translucent and green as earth and sea; 
sapphire is blue, as of the highest heavens ; and over the 
amber glory in that vision was the appearance as of a 
Man occupying the highest position. The wheels that 
turned and went, and the wings that beat the air, were 
symbolic of the presence of God in every form of nature. 
Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went; thither 
was the Spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up be- 
side them; for the Spirit of life was in the wheels. 
Ezekiel was looking at God, so far as man may gaze 
upon Him. He was beholding the vehicle of the Divine 
movement, and found that it takes earth and heaven to 
manifest it. Whether it be in the machinery, the pro- 
cession, the regular motion of earthly things, or whether 
it be in the unapproachable and unexplainable light and 
splendour of the upper world, God is everywhere. 
Earth’s living creatures and heaven’s splendours move 
by the Spirit of God. This is a most inadequate analy- 
sis of the vision of that chapter, but it is sufficient to in- 


1 Ezek. i, 20 (margin). 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 59 


dicate the central truth thereofi—that every movement 
of the wheels of nature, every beat of the wing of crea- 
ted thing, is by the impulse and energy of the Spirit of 
life. 

From the study of these passages it is evident that, 
as by the power of the Spirit cosmos was produced out | 
of chaos, so by the ever present and active power of the 
Spirit in the processes of nature cosmos is maintained. 

There is yet one more phase of this subject suggested 
by the apostle Paul: For the earnest expectation of the 
creation waiteth for the revealing of the sons of God. 
For the creation’ was subjected to vanity, not of its own 
will, but by reason of Him Who subjected it, m hope 
that the creation itself also shall be delivered from the 
bondage of corruption.” Paul had no narrow concep- 
tion of his Master’s work. He saw the regenerative 
work of Jesus, as administered by the Spirit, passing 
out, not merely into human lives, but into the whole cre- 
ation. 

We know that the whole creation groaneth and trav- 
aileth in pain together until now. 

We ourselves groan within ourselves." 

The Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with 
groanings which cannot be uttered.° 

1The change from creature of the Authorized to creation of 
the Revised is important. The former word may suggest an in- 
dividual, the latter embraces all created things. 


2 Rom. viii. 19-21. ? Rom. viii. 22. * Rom. viii. 23. ‘Rom. 
viii. 26. 


60 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


A trinity of agony is here revealed,—nature Seite 
and travailing in pain; the child of God groaning and 
waiting for deliverance ; and, most wonderful of all, the 
Spirit of God making intercession with groanings which 
cannot be uttered. 

Thus it is declared that the Spirit is present in crea- 
tion, and all through creation as a regenerative Force; 
and ere the work of the Cross of Christ be completed on 
this planet, every inch of it will be renewed. The whole 
creation that to-day groaneth and travaileth in pain to- 
gether will feel the balm, the healing, and the blessing 
of the work of Christ. Trees and flowers will again re- 
alize what they also in some sense have lost by the fall 
of man. All the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and in- 
stead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it 
shall be to the Lord for a name.’ The Spirit Who 
created, preserves, energizes, and moves through all na- 
ture, is in nature as an intercessory Force—as a Force 
administering, by processes which are beyond analysis, 
the great work of the Christ Himself; and this ministry 
will eventuate in the removal of the curse from nature, 
and its consequent renewal, glorious and perfect. 

From these seven scriptures certain deductions may 
be made. 

“ The Holy Spirit is the Director of all order in crea- 
tion. He is first seen brooding over the primal chaos, 


alsa Ty 12; 13. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 61 


and producing order. He is for evermore the Intelli- 
gence and Force of all mathematical precision in nature. 
The old words are still true: Seedtime and harvest, 
and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and 
night shall not cease.1| These processions follow with 
infinite precision, and mathematical regularity, by the 
direction of the Holy Spirit of God. It is by no mere 
fortuitous accident that morning succeeds upon night, 
and that day sinks and nestles into the bosom of dark- 
ness. These things follow because there is an ever- 
present Spirit of intelligence, the Spirit of the living 
God, at work to the utmost bound of created things. 
The Holy Spirit is the Creator of beauty. He is re- 
vealed in the garnishing of the heavens, in the blue of 
day, and in the darkness of night with all the splen- 
dours of stars scattered in profusion across it. All 
these are beautiful, and they appeal to the beautiful in 
man; for they were born of God, as man is born of God. 
Not only is this true of the beauty which overawes, but 
also of the form of every leaf and flower and spire of 
grass. The stately sweep of the sea and the delicate 
dome of the dew-drop are alike the outworking of the 
wisdom and energy of the Spirit of God. Man, born 
of the Spirit, in the grace of transformed life gives evi- 
dence of the Spirit’s power. So also, in different de- 
gree and kind, but none the less certainly, is it with the 
flowers of the field. Put them under microscopic test, 


2Gen. viii. 22. 


62 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


and their exquisiteness and beauty and precision and 
regularity reveal the working of the Spirit of God. He 
in nature not only directs the order, but creates the 
varied and varying beauty. 

Again, the Spirit is the Breath of renewal. Through 
death He ever leads to life. That fact is revealed even 
in the death of the Son of God, for it is written that 
through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without 
blemish unto God.1 The Winter wind that beat upon 
. Him in His dying was but the preface to the Summer 
wind of Pentecost. 

These things are to be seen everywhere in nature be- 
cause the self-same Spirit Who works in regeneration 
works also in generation. This Spirit, the Breath of 
renewal through death, comes with manifold glory in 
the Spring, bringing a renewal of the earth. Winter’s 
cold precedes Spring. Autumn’s fire precedes Winter’s 
cold. Through fire and cold the Spirit ever moves to 
new life; and the new forms of beauty, manifold and 
wondrous, with which the face of the earth is renewed 
are His. 

To those who live and walk in the Spirit, all creation 
is seen to be of God. No man can find God through 
nature; but every man may find nature through God. 
If man begin with nature, he cannot climb from it to 
God ; but if he begin with God, he may enter into the 
mystic region, wherein lies true appreciation of the glo- 


1 Heb. ix. 14. 


THE SPIRIT IN CREATION 63 


ries and beauties of nature. No man has ever yet seen 
or understood the beauty of the daisy, save as he has 
seen that the floweret, blossoming and blooming to-day, 
to be trodden underfoot to-morrow, is a part of the work 
of the same Spirit which is transforming human charac- 
ter and life. The Spirit of God brooded over the chaos 
and brought forth the cosmos. The Spirit of God has, 
for evermore, been brooding over nature; and every 
form of beauty, and every form of order, and every man- 
ifestation of renewal are parts of the Divine expression 
of Himself. All creation is of God, to the man who 
lives and walks with Him. 
One Spirit—His 

Who wore the platted thorn with bleeding brows 

Rules universal nature! Not a flower 

But shows some touch, in freckle, streak, or stain, 

Of His unrivall’d pencil. He inspires 

Their balmy odours, and imparts their hues, 

And bathes their eyes with nectar, and includes, 

In grains as countless as the sea-side sands, 

The forms with which He sprinkles all the earth. 

Happy who walks with Him, whom what he finds 

Of flavour or of scent in fruit or flower, 

Or what he views of beautiful or grand 

In nature, from the broad majestic oak 


To the green blade that twinkles in the sun, 
Prompts with remembrance of a present God. 


V 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO 
UNFALLEN MAN 


TOO constant contemplation of man as he is, has 
resulted in failure to appreciate his original con- 
dition. Man to-day, even at his best, does not realize 
the full Divine intention. The whole race is suffering 
from the sin of the past; limitation is to be found every- 
where; yet man has endeavoured to build up out of the 
broken fragments of the Divine ideal, an ideal for him- 
self. 
In the answer to the Psalmist’s question, 
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? 
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him? 
the terms in which man is spoken of are not those of 
limitation, but those which reveal the perfection of the 
Divine ideal. 
For Thou hast made him but little lower than God, 
And crownest him with glory and honour. 
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works 
of Thy hands ; 


1Ps. viii. 4-6. 


64 


, 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 65 


Thou hast put all things under his feet: 

All sheep and oxen, 

Yea, and the beasts of the field; 

The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, 

W hatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.* 

That picture is not fulfilled in the experience of any 
human being in the present times. There is little about 
man to suggest that he is but little lower than God— 
little of the crowning with glory and honour that the 
Psalmist speaks of ; and man has in a large measure lost 
his dominion. The animal creation is tamed in part; 
but by far the greater part of it is outside the dominion 
and the authority of man. The writer of the Letter to 
the Hebrews claims a partial fulfilment of that ideal of 
man in the Person of Jesus Christ. He claims the ulti- 
mate fulfilment of the whole ideal in the Person and 
through the work of Christ ; but he shows that the larger 
fulfilment waits for a while. After quoting the Psalm, 
he proceeds to say: But now we see not yet all things 
subjected to Him. But we behold Him Who hath been 
made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because 
_ of the suffering of death crowned with glory and hon- 
our? He declares that in the Person of Christ, two of 
the notes of ideal manhood have been realized: first, 
made a little lower than the angels; secondly, crowned 
with glory and honour. But he has already said, We 
see not yet all things subjected to Him—much lies in the 


2Ps, viii. 7, 8. ? Heb. ii. 8, 9. 


66 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


future for fulfilment; but this claiming of the fulfilment 
of the ideal of the Psalm in the Person of Christ sug- 
gests a line of consideration which it is profitable to fol- 
low. God’s ideal Man and the relation the Spirit of 
God bears to that Man is discovered by a study of the 
Person of Christ. 

The present enquiry, then, bears upon the ministry 
of the Spirit in the life of unfallen and ideal man. 
The consideration is necessarily limited to two examples 
—Adam and Jesus. The first is valuable in one respect 


only, as it reveals the essential glory of the creation of 


— 
=~ 


man. The life of Adam is not chronicled in detail; and 
there is therefore no certain knowledge of its character 
or duration. The relation existing between God’s per- 
fect man and the Holy Spirit can only be understood by 
a study of the life of Jesus. 

There are two scriptures which lead into the very 
heart of the study. 

Many persons have a great difficulty about the second 
account of creation as given in the Book of Genesis.* 
After the apparent completion of the story, at the close 
of the first chapter, there is a repetition in the second; 
and a casual observer may imagine that there is not 
merely repetition, but contradiction. As a matter of 
fact there is none. The second story is the complement 
of the first; it is the unfolding of a certain aspect of 
creation about which nothing was declared in the first. 


1Gen. ii. 7. 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 67 


That reveals three facts :— 

i. That man was a result of counsel in the Godhead: 
Let us make man.* 

ii. That he was created in the wage of God.* 

iii. That he was given dominion over a previous 
creation. 

In the subsequent story there is an unfolding of his 
nature. Man is now shown as uniting in his own per- 
son the material with the spiritual, the earth with the 
heavens, the things that perish and pass with the things 
that abide for ever. God made man of the dust of the 
earth—a material basis—and breathed into him the 
breath of lives, thus creating a spiritual being. Through 
that inbreathing by God, the conscious side of man’s na- 
ture was born, and he became a living soul.* 

The dust which was of the earth was devoid of self- 
consciousness. Man’s power to enter into his new en- 
vironment, his power to submit to the government un- 
der which he was placed, his power to enter into the new 
companionship, which completed the possibilities of his 
being—all these were the result of the inbreathing of 
the Breath of lives by God. Man is not man, apart from 
the direct ministry and sustaining power of the Spirit of 
God. Everything that man is, in the essential facts of 
his being—everything which differentiates. between a 
~ man and an animal—is due to this peculiar form of in- 
breathing, whereby man became a conscious soul. 


1Gen. i. 26. *Gen.i. 27. *Gen. ii. 7. 


68 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


In the illumination of the Breath of God man entered 
upon a perfect environment. The Garden had been 
planted by God; the earth had been created by God. 
Everything that surrounded man, in the moment of his 
generation, had been prepared by Divine wisdom and 
infinite tenderness. This being amid the Garden—look- 
ing upon the glory of its trees, its plants, its flowers, and 
all its varied life, comprehending and understanding the 
whole—is man; and in his powers of comprehension he 
is distinguished from all lower forms of being, and 
therein lies his chief glory. He entered thus into the 
beauty and the glory of his environment, by virtue of 
the fact that there had been breathed into him the Breath 
of lives. He was the offspring of God. 

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men.' 
The first meaning of this statement is that the living 
Word of God, the eternal Christ, is the Centre and 
Source of all life. But it also suggests that in man life 
was different from life anywhere else; in man life be- 
came light. There was life in the plant, and life in the 
lower animals; but when God inbreathed to man the 
Breath of lives, He bestowed a life in which lay the ele- 
ment of light. In man, creation first looked back into 
the face of God, and knew Him. No lower form of 
life knows God. In every flower which decks the sod, 
there is present the touch of God; but no flower knows 
it. In all life there are present the power and energy of 


4John i. 4. 


——— ee 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 69 


God; all things live and move and have their being in 
Him; but apart from man, none are conscious of it. In 
man life became light, consciousness, knowingness. 
Man was created to look back into the face of God, and 
to know Him, to understand in some measure the mys- — 
tery of His being. Man entered into the perfect en- 
vironment of the Garden, knew it, appreciated it, and 
discovered God in it, because there had been inbreathed 
to him the Breath of lives. 

Not only was this inbreathing of light upon his en- 
vironment ; it was, moreover, understanding for his oc- 
cupation. He was to have dominion over the lower ani- 
mals, to dress and to keep the Garden. He was able to 
do this through the inbreathing of the Spirit of life. 
The energy and the light for wise dominion were the 
energy and the light of God. The guidance necessary 
for the further development of the wonderful creation 
of the earth was provided by the inbreathing of that 
self-same Spirit. 

Man entered not only upon perfect environment, with 
perfect and sufficient occupation, but he also came under 
perfect government. The Lord God commanded the 
mam is the statement which marks the Divine sover- 
eignty. Man understood and obeyed the law in the en- 
ergy of that inbreathing of the Breath of life. 

Not only did he enter into environment, occupation, 
and government, but also into companionship. God 


2Gen. ii. 16. 


7° THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


made woman to be his companion. He entered into that 
new relation which created and conditioned the whole 
social range of human life in the power of that same 
Breath of lives. When man is thus viewed from the 
standpoint of original intention as seen in the picture of 
Edenic beauty and power, it is evident that the natural 
is spiritual and the spiritual is natural, and that there is 
no single aspect of human life which is not under the 
government of the inspiring Spirit of God. Every part 
of man, the fact of his being, his power to touch his en- 
vironment with appreciation, his power to follow a daily 
occupation, his power to submit to government, his 
power of social relationship and companionship—all are 
made possible of highest realization by the great in- 
breathing of God, the work of the Spirit, whereby man 
becomes a living soul.* 

These are some of the suggestions of the glory of 
man, gathered from the creation story. They are no 
more than suggestions, because the story of sin follows 
quickly thereupon. 

Passing over the intervening centuries, as contribut- 
ing no perfect example of man, the daybreak of the race 
was reached in the advent of the second Man, Jesus. 
He was the final and perfect example of ideal human 
life. In Him was life; and the life was the light of 
men.t That is not only a declaration that life becomes 
light in men; it also claims that the life which is light in 


2 Gen. ii. 7. 7 John i. 4. 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 7! 


man had its most perfect outshining in the Person and 
character of Christ. It may be said of the Incarnate 
Word—In Him was life; and His life was the light of 
men. To know what human life is, He must be known. 
To have seen Him as the disciples saw Him, was to have 
seen the perfection of human life in every one of its as- 
pects. In His physical appearance, in His mental life, 
in His spiritual nature, He was a perfect unveiling of 
the glory of ideal Manhood. 

The art of the great masters seems to have been dom- 
inated by a conception of the physical appearance of 
Jesus which was utterly false. He is represented as 
pale, thin, wan, emaciated. Perhaps Hoffmann alone 
has discovered the glory of the beautiful Christ, perfect 
in form and comeliness, perfect in beauty. Truly it is 
written of Him that His visage was so marred more 
than any man,+ but it was the marring of 
beauty, not of ugliness nor decrepitude. The marks of 
anguish were evident upon His face, and the lines of 
sorrow ploughed deeply into it; but when the young 
ruler met Him, fell before Him, and said Good Master,’ 
the exclamation was most probably drawn from him by 
an overwhelming sense of the beauty and the majesty of 
the appearance of Christ. Before the surging sorrows 
of His public ministry rolled over His heart, there is 
very little room for doubt that He was the most perfectly 
lovely Man the world had ever gazed upon. Any other 


1TIsa. lii. 14. ? Mark x. 17. 


72 THE SPIRIT OF ‘GOD 


conception of Christ dishonours Him. In Him was 
life, and in Him the life was light; so that men might 
know, by looking at the Christ, all the beauty and all the 
glory of the Divine ideal. 

This applies also to His mental culture. A sinless 
soul, living in communion with nature, would under- 
stand her to an extent which must be impossible for the 
sinful one, who attempted to grasp her inner teaching 
merely on the lines of ordinary study. The men of the 
synagogue said of Christ, when, after absence from 
Nazareth, He returned and talked with them: How 
knoweth this Man letters, having never learned?* The 
emphasis of their question lay, not upon the spiritual 
teaching of Christ, but upon the illustrations He used, 
and upon His evident acquaintance with what was then 
spoken of as learning. It was not that they were over- 
whelmed by a sense of His spiritual insight ; for, then as 


now, men knew that spiritual insight often belonged to 


those who had no learning. They were impressed by 
the beauty of His expression, the wealth of His illustra- 
tion, and His evident familiarity with those things, to 
become acquainted with which, men gave themselves up 
to long courses of study. The mind of Christ was re- 
fined, cultured, and beautiful—not through the ordinary 
process by which limitation and sin endeavour to over- 
come their deficiencies, but by a pure response to a per- 
fect ideal, and by the inspiring touch and revelation of 
the Spirit of God. 


1 John vii. 15. 


a i ee . 
a De a eee! 4 


— 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 73 


The relation which existed between this perfect Man 
of the Gospels and the Spirit, was of the closest. 
Christ’s very existence as a Man was due to the miracu- 
lous power of the Holy Spirit. The whole of His per- 
fect Being, spirit, soul, and body, was the creation of the 
Spirit of God. Therefore, every action of that body, 
every relation of the body to the mind, and of the mind 
to the spirit, all the inter-relations of His complex na- 
ture, were balanced within the spiritual Power that cre- 
ated them, and were conditioned for evermore by the 
suggestions, impulses, and energy of that Power. 

As Christ passed through childhood and the earlier 
years of His life, and into those of His mature manhood, 
all were directed by the Spirit of God. Luke, writing of 
the time when He went down with His parents from the 
presentation in the Temple, declares that He advanced in 
wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men.* 
Afterwards, in the course of His public ministry, Jesus 
said, Which of you by being anxious can add one cubit 
unto his stature Applying the philosophy of His 
teaching to His own growth, the fact is clear that His 
physical growth was the outcome of submission to Di- 
vine law, revealed by the inspiration of the Spirit. It 
is also chronicled that He went down from the Temple 
with His parents, and was subject to them. That sub- 
jection being over, He came forth into public ministry, 
and with scathing, scorching denunciation testified 
against the men who excused themselves from caring 

1Luke ii. 52. 7? Matt. vi. 27. 


74 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


for the needs of their parents, on the plea that their 
goods were Corban, or gifts devoted to God. He was 
angry with them because their action was contrary to 
Divine law. Subjection to His parents on His part had 
been a perpetual answer to a perpetual law, written in 
His heart by the finger of the Spirit of God, as He 
passed through His boyhood. 

How perfectly He was devoted to the law of God as 
it had been given to His people! He studied it, medi- 
tated in it, and became so familiar with it, that when 
His public ministry began, He knew exactly what it had 
to teach. In obedience to that law He went up to His 
Jewish confirmation at the age of twelve, and took His 
place among the doctors, not, as it is so often represent- 
ed, as a rude, precocious boy, trying to puzzle old men, 
but as a sweet boy-disciple, answering their questions 
with a lucidity which astonished them, and asking them, 
out of the working of His own pure mind, questions 
which were amazing, coming from One so youthful. 
When He returned to Nazareth, He took up the tools of 
His reputed father’s craft, and mastered their use. 
Through long years He abode in that shop, working out 
the will of God, and revealing in every piece of carpen- 
try the design and beauty and force of the inspiring 
Spirit, by Whom He was created and for evermore sus- 
tained. 

As the week drew to a close, and the Sabbath came, 
He went as His custom was’ to the place of prayer, to 


1Luke iv. 16. 


+ 
tae nite = 
a = “ = 
ao eat dee 


nes 


ee a a 


J 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 75 


worship God among His people, with His face toward 
Jerusalem. 

All His life, in both its earlier years and maturer 
manhood, was conditioned in and by the Spirit, to 
Whose guidance and direction He never gave one single | 
moment’s slight. 

Turning from these earlier years to the account of 
His public ministry, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John 
give the story of His anointing with the Spirit for the 
duties of that ministry. Immediately after the Anoint- 
ing came the Temptation. Matthew, Mark, and Luke 
alike chronicle the fact that He was taken to that Temp- 
tation by the Spirit of God. When the Temptation was 
over, He entered upon the years spent for the most part 
before the gaze of the multitudes. Luke declares that 
He went to that ministry in the power of the Spirit. He 
wrought miracles during those three years; and in his 
sermon in the house of Cornelius, Peter declared that 
these also were performed through the presence with 
Him of the Holy Spirit: Jesus of Nazareth, how that 
God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with 
power: Who went about doing good, and healing all 
that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with 
Him. 

When at last the years of public ministry were ended, 
and He went to the exodus of the Cross, He accomp- 
lished that in the same power, for He through the eter- 
nal Spirit offered Himself without blemish unto God.? 

1 Acts x. 38. 7? Heb. ix. 14. E 


76 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


After the sojourn in the shades of darkness He rose 
again, as Peter declared, through the power and energy 
of the Spirit." Between His resurrection and ascension 
He sojourned for a while among His disciples; and du- 
ring those days He taught them, organized them, gave 
them their definite instructions, and this He also did 
through the Holy Spirit, as Luke declared in the open- 
ing statements of his second treatise: The former 
treatise I made, O Theophilus, concerning all that Jesus 
began both to do and to teach, until the day in which He 
was received up, after that He had given command- 
ment through the Holy Spirit unto the apostles whom 
He had chosen.’ 

The story of the perfect Man of nineteen hundred 


years ago is the story of a human life, perpetually int\ 


spired and energized by the Holy Spirit of God. From 
birth, through growth, testing, and ministry, on to 
death and resurrection and the organizing of the aposto- 
late, the whole is a perpetual and unbroken harmony— 
a harmony created by the moving of the Wind, the 
Spirit of God, upon the instrument of a perfect human 
being. 

From the glimpse of glory in the first creation, it was 
evident that creation was of the Spirit; and that the 
power by which man enters into a perfect environment 
and occupation, and submits to a perfect government, 
and continues in the joy of a perfect companionship, is 


an pety ii. 18.5.2 Acts. 1.01, a 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 77 


the power of the Breath of lives. This is finally proved 
by the unfolding of the ideal in the life of Jesus of Naz- 
areth. To know, then, what perfect humanity is, Christ 
must be known. 

Every man’s being, in all its complex wonders, exists 
by the creative energy of the Holy Spirit. 

The expressions often used by Paul, the natural man 
and the spiritual man, were constantly placed in antith- 
esis. He taught that the natural cannot comprehend 
the spiritual. A theologian’s expressions must be un- 
derstood in the sense in which he uses them, before his 
theology can be understood; and this is as true of Pau 
as of any other theologian. Whenever he spoke of the 
natural man, he intended to refer to man in the condition 
resulting from the sin of the race; and therefore, in the 
higher heights of vision, and in the larger, truer outlook 
upon humanity, he spoke on such occasions, not of the 
natural, but of the unnatural. Sin is not natural to 
man. Men are shapen in iniquity, and go astray as 
soon as they be born, speaking lies ;* but the reason for 
this is that something unnatural has been introduced, 
which has poisoned every successive generation. The 
work of the natural Man Jesus is to restore unnatural 
things to the spiritual, which is the truly natural. No 
man has discovered the possibilities of his own being, 
no man understands the glory of his own life, until he 
has come to see that all he has within himself is of God, 


MPs. lis sg) Iviii. 3; 


78 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


save the taint of sin, which has no right to be there, and 
for the putting away of which the perfect One went into 
the darkness of His Passion-baptism. | 
The full and proper use of all the powers of man is 
made in the energy of the Holy Spirit; and physical 
health lies within that realm. Here it is necessary to 
safeguard the position held, even at the cost of repe- 
tition. The subject of which this chapter treats is that 
of ideal man. Under the present order of disciplinary 
life, sickness is a veritable ministry of infinite love, not 
only for the sake of those who suffer, but of others, who 


through their suffering learn more of God; but the man 


who abides in the will of God, obeys the law of God, 
trusts himself wholly to the inspiration of the Spirit of 
God, that man will touch higher physical conditions 
than are possible to him apart from such living. That 
man cannot be compared with another man, because 
there are many different sets of laws to be considered 
in any such comparisons; but he may be compared with 
himself, and, doing this, it may assuredly be declared 
that, abiding within the realm of the Divine law, his life 
submitted to the law of the Divine Spirit, he will touch, 
by such submission and abiding, a higher realm of phy- 
sical force and power than by any other law of life in 
which it is possible for him to live. 

So also in the mental sphere. Everything that 1s 
pure and beautiful in poetry, art, music, and science is 
the direct outcome of the revealing Spirit of God. Men 


THE SPIRIT IN RELATION TO UNFALLEN MAN 79 


sometimes affirm that Shakespeare was inspired; and 
they are right,—by no means in the same sense in which 
the Bible is; but he was inspired nevertheless, and that 
by the Holy Spirit of God. All pure genius is inspired 
—not in the same degree as the Scriptures, because not 
for the same purpose, but by the same Person. All the 
heights of vision granted to the strong, pure poet, are 
created for his seeing. Wordsworth, for instance, be- 
cause he was pure in heart, saw God. All mental mag- 
nificence that is pure is an inspiration of the Spirit of 
God. There may be a prostitution of a Divine gift in 
this realm also; and a man upon whom God has be- 
stowed the gift of vision, may abuse that gift, and de- 
base it to the purposes of hell. The power to see, 
whether it be exercised in poetry, art, music, or research, 
is not born of evil, but is the child of heaven, the flam- 
ing, glorious proof of the touch of the Spirit of God 
upon the mind of man. 

Given a man 1edeemed, regenerated, and wholly pos- 
sessed by the Spirit, that man has the fullest entrance 
into all true life. The Divine ideal for man is that he 
should be spiritual, and that his spirituality should be 
realized by the surcharging of his whole being with the 
Spirit of God. That Spirit will turn all the forces of 
his life into the one direction of true worship. He will 
employ every power for that purpose for which it was 
created, and enable a man to worship in the beauty of 
holiness perpetually. In work and rest, through pathos 


80 | THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


and humour, by laughter and tears, will be shown, 
through the Spirit, the glories of creation ; and thus God 
will be glorified in the full life of man. 

How far even Christian people are as yet from the 
realization of this ideal! Toward this the Spirit is 
working; and at the last there shall not be merely the 
two men out of all the years as examples of the ideal, 
but a regenerated humanity, brought into the presence of 
God by the work of the Saviour and of the Spirit, with- 
out spot or wrinkle or any such thing. 


BOOK III 
THE SPIRIT PRIOR TO PENTECOST 


81 


Through storm and sun the age draws on 
When heaven and earth shall meet, 

For the Lord has said that glorious 
He will make the place of His feet. 

And the grass may die on the summer hills, 
The flower fade by the river, 

But our God is the same through endless years, 
And His word shall stand for ever. 


What of the night, O watchman, 
Set to mark the dawn of day? 

The wind blows fair from the morning star, 
And the shadows flee away. 

Dark are the vales, but the mountains glow 
As the light its splendour flings, 

And the Sun of Righteousness comes up 
With healing in His wings. 


Shine on, shine on, O blessed Sun, 
Through all the round of heaven, 

Till the darkest vale and the farthest isle 
Full to Thy light are given— 

Till the desert and the wilderness 
As Sharon’s plain shall be, 

And the love of the Lord shall fill the earth 
As the waters fill the sea. 


Sunday Afternoon Verses. 
(W. Ropertson NIcoLL) 


VI 


THE WORK OF THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL 
TO THE MESSIAH 


Y an act ofwilful rebellion man distanced himself 
fromGod, and was alienated from the life of God. 
The grace of the Divine heart immediately announced a 
reconciliation. No sooner was sin committed than there 
was declared the purpose of grace and love, not in detail 
and in fulness, but in a promise that came to be under- 
stood more fully as the ages rolled. Speaking to the 
enemy, God said: J¢ shall bruise thy head, and thou 
shali bruise His heel.? Necessarily the process of that 
reconciliation have been slow, and even yet are not ful- 
_ ly and finally accomplished. The Divine love outran in 
_ its utterance the actual accomplishment of its purposes. 
All the arrangements of the old dispensation for the ap- 
proach of man to God by way of sacrifice were based 
upon the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. .The blood 
of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer never | 
took sin away; but they did help men, amid the oliene V 


a oh, iv. 18... 7 Gen. ili, “15, 
83 


84 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


in which they lived and worshipped, to understand the 
principle of sacrifice, without which there could be no 
remission of sins. In the plan of God, the Lamb slain 
was the way of reconciliation; and although the Son of 
His love could not be manifested until the fulness of the 
time,t yet for the sake of man, and in the purpose of 
God, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the 
world.® 

The glorious announcement of New Testament min- 
istry is contained in the words, God was in Christ recon- 
ciling the world unto Himself ;* but He was so in pur- 
pose, long before the historical fact was accomplished, 
upon which the larger, fuller dispensation should de- 
pend. | 

The Fatherhood of God was a fact before the coming 
of Jesus. He illuminated it for men, so that since His 
coming they have understood it as never before. 
Though men had wandered and lost their sense of re- 
lationship, God was ever their Father, and His presence 
their home. Even in those old days, before the full light 
of the glory of God had shone upon man’s pathway in 
the face of the Christ, there were souls who discovered 
the fact of the Fatherhood, and passed their days homed 
‘1 God. The same law of procedure is discoverable also 
with reference to the work of the Holy Spirit. 

The whole being of man was conditioned in the 
energy and the wisdom of that Spirit. The knowledge 


1Gal. iv. 4. 7 Rev. xiii. 8. °2 Cor. v. 19. 


THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 385 


of this fact man had lost by reason of his sin; and the 
Spirit, resisted, was separated from the actualities of 
human life. From the moment of the Fall a new form 
of His ministry began, which was partial, occasional, 
special, and prophetic of the great dispensation to be 
ushered in, when the true light of sacrifice had made 
plain the way for the clearer apprehension of Father- 
hood. } 

The present age is pre-eminently the dispensation of 
the Holy Spirit, in which He has a specific work, differ- _, 
ing from that of preceding ages. This work is based y 
upon the work of Christ, and was impossible until He : 
had finished that work and ascended on high. \ 

It must, however, be remembered that in the past the 
Spirit had not a constant ministry. The differences be- 
tween then and now are most clearly defined. Until Va 
after the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, 
the Spirit is not spoken of as creating a Church by His 
own abiding indwelling. Neither is He spoken of as 
the one direct and only Administrator of the affairs of 
such a body. And yet again, He is not spoken of as a 
Sanctifier. All the other aspects of the Spirit’s work are 
found—not continually and perpetually, and in an 
abiding sense, as they are to-day, but as special occasions 
demanded. | 

There is also this important distinction between the 
old, and new dispensations. In the old, the Spirit came 
upon and filled men for specific work without reference 


86 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


to character. In the new, after the accomplishment of 
the work of the Cross, this is never so. His filling for 
service always depends upon His application of the 
work of the Saviour for cleansing and holiness. 

Certain phrases of Old Testament Scripture reveal 
both the methods and character of the Spirit’s work du- 
ring those long centuries. 

He is spoken of as coming upon men, as coming 
mightily upon men, as abiding in men, and as filling 
certain men for specific work. 

There may be a great many subdivisions of the 
eighty-eight passages in which the Holy Spirit is di- 
rectly mentioned in the Old Testament’ but, broadly 
stated, the method of the Spirit is marked by these four 
statements. It is not stated that He came upon, nor 
that He came mightily upon the whole nation; nor, 
again, is it affirmed that He abode in or filled the whole 
nation. In that fact lies the difference between the old 
dispensation and the new. At Pentecost the Spirit 
came upon all, He came mightily upon all, He came to 
abide in all, He came to fill all) There may be many 
members of the Church of Jesus Christ who have not 
realized in their own experience all this fourfold work 
of the Spirit; but that is not to be laid to the charge 
of the economy of grace, but rather to the failure of such 
persons to realize the purpose of God. 


1Dr. Elder Cumming, in his book Through the Eternal Spirit 
has compiled a catena of passages in which the Holy Spirit is 
directly mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament there are 
eighty-eight passages in all. 


THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 87 


The Spirit fell upon Gideon. He had in his own 
home and family broken down the altar of Baal, in order 
that he might make a protest against idolatry ; and after 
he had done this the Spirit came upon him. 

David was doubtful as to the loyalty of Benjamin and — 
Judah. Then the Spirit came upon Amasai,? and he 
spoke words which convinced David of the loyalty of 
these tribes. 

Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada the priest, was raised 
up to protest against idolatry in the holy places; and, in 
order that he might do it, the Spirit of God came upon 
him.® 

Upon these three men the Spirit came for very differ- 
ent reasons: upon Gideon, after he had broken down 
the altar of Baal, and in order that he might become 
the leader of the people to victory; upon Amasai, in 
order that the loyalty of two tribes might be believed 
by the king; upon Zechariah, in order that he might 
utter a protest against idolatry. 

The same thought lies within each—the Spirit came 
upon them. The Hebrew word literally means that the 
Spirit clothed Himself with them—not that the Spirit 
fell upon them as an anointing, but the Spirit took hold 
of them, passed into them, and made them the instru- 
_ ments through which He accomplished His work. The 
_ thought conveyed to the mind of the Hebrew reader is, 
that the Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon, the Spirit 
clothed Himself with Amasai, the Spirit clothed Himself 


Pudge. Vvis 34. 22 “Chron. xii, 183% 2° (Chrony xxiv: ‘20. 


88 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


with Zechariah. Here there is a revelation of one of 
the methods of the Spirit under that dispensation. For 
the doing of a special work, for the delivery of a special 
message, for the announcement of the immediate pur- 
pose of God, the Spirit clothed Himself with a man, and 
the Divine energy moved out in speech and in deed; so 
that through the man was known the will of God, and 
seen the power of God. These are three instances out 
of many in which men became the clothing of the Spirit. 
The distinction must be observed: it was not that these 
men were clothed with the Spirit, but that the Spirit 
clothed Himself with them for the doing of specific 
work. 

Take the second thought. The Spirit of God came 
mightily upon Samson, and he slew a lion. Saul 
joined a company of the prophets; the Spirit of God 
came mightily upon him, and he prophesied.” Samuel 
poured the anointing oil upon David, and the Spirit 
came mightily upon him.* 

In these cases an entirely different word is used. It 
is not said that the Spirit clothed Himself with them, 
but that the Spirit came upon them; and the thought is 
that of forcing forward, or pushing. The literal mean- 
ing of the word is, that the Spirit attacked these men, 
came upon them with compulsion, forced them forward 
to a certain activity. Under the compulsion of the 
Spirit, Samson slew the lion, Saul joined the prophets 


1Judg. xiv. 6. 71 Sam. x. Io. 8; Sam. Xvi. 13: 


tie ae 


THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 89 


and uttered words of prophecy, and David went forward 
to the work of governing the people. How different 
is the manifestation of the power!—the slaying of a 
lion, the uttering of the truth of God, and the governing 
of the people; but in each case the action was under the 
impulse of the same Spirit. 

There are two passages in the Old Testament where 
it is said that the Spirit dwelt in men. Pharaoh said 
that in Joseph there dwelt the Spirit of God, and that 
therefore he was discreet and wise.t When a successor 
to Moses was needed for the government and leading 
of the people, Joshua was chosen because in him dwelt 
the Spirit of God.? 

Whether Pharaoh understood his own expression 
may be very doubtful, but it is certainly worthy of note 
that in each of the cases cited, the Spirit of God created 
fitness for government; and this fitness consisted, not 
in autocratic, tyrannous power, but in discretion, wis- 
dom, gentleness, and beauty of demeanour. Such were 
the manifestations of the indwelling of the Spirit in 
these men under the old covenant. 

Once again, the Spirit filled certain men; and that 
expression is only used in connection with the work of 
the making of the Tabernacle. The Spirit of God filled 
Bezalel that he might have cunning to work in gold, 
and in silver, and in brass, and in cutting of stones for 
setting, and in carving of wood, to work in all manner 


1Gen, xli. 38, 39. 7Num. xxvii. 18. 


go THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


of workmanship.t Thus the whole of the work of the 
Tabernacle, in its exquisite perfection and in its glorious 
beauty, was the outshining of the wisdom of the Holy 
Spirit. No man was glorified in that upreared Taber- 
nacle. Perhaps it was otherwise in the times of de- 
cadence; but men of spiritual intelligence, who in the 
early days looked upon the work of the Tabernacle, 
would not say, See how cunning a workman was Bes- 
alel, but rather, See how wondrously the Spirit of God 
has wrought through Bezalel, in the accomplishment of 
the Divine purpose. 

These illustrations go to show that the Holy Spirit 
was always interested in and working among men; that 
He did not abide with them, but that, for special pur- 
poses and at special points in their history, He equipped 
them for whatever the particular moment demanded. 

As to the character of the Spirit’s work through all 
these years, there is a wonderful development of revela- 
tion concerning the ministry of the Spirit, discoverable 
in the character of His work as time proceeded: And 
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face 
of the ground, and daughters were born unto them, that 
the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were 
fair; and they took them wives of all that they chose.’ 
There were two distinct ideals of life upon the earth, 
embodied in the seed of Adam through Cain and 
through Seth respectively, the seventh generation of the 


1 Exod. xxxi. 4, 5. ?Gen. vi. 1, 2. 


“i el ~ 
~~ ~ 


ps a aos arts 


rt ieee 


Pm SOLS OT, CT 


i ali 


THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 9! 


one culminating in Lamech, the man who, having com- 
mitted murder, composed poetry in defence of his sin; 
and the seventh generation of the other culminating in 
Enoch, a man of whom it is written that he walked with 
God.’ Much speculation has been rife concerning the 
intermarriage of the sons of God and the daughters of 
men. The exposition of the passage that is most prob- 
ably correct, is that which treats this intermarriage, as 
having taken place between people who were godly and 
those who were godless—between the descendants of 
Seth and those of Cain. Be that as it may, the condi- 
tion of things upon the earth had reached a point 
which is revealed in the words: My Spirit shall not 
strive with man for ever, for that he also is flesh.? 
This is, moreover, a revelation of the work of the 
Spirit of God in the years from the Fall to the Flood. 
He was striving with men, convicting them of sin. 
Then followed another manifestation of the Spirit in 
history. The chosen people were being organized for 
the embodiment of a Divine purpose, and as the medium 
of a Divine revelation ; and the Spirit came upon certain 
men for the carrying out of all the details necessary to 
the perfecting of the organization. Then, again, in the 
passages referred to, concerning Samson, Saul, and 
David, the Spirit of God is seen manifesting Himself 
as a Spirit of strength. A period of conflict had come 
in the history of the chosen people, a race of heroes was 


1Gen. v. 22. *Gen. vi. 3. 


92 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


needed for the accomplishment of Divine purposes 
among the nations, and deeds of daring that character- 
ized the period were wrought in the power of the Spirit. 
Men were raised up to do these deeds of heroism by the 
Spirit falling mightily upon them. 

The prophetic books yield yet another manifestation 
of the presence and work of the Spirit, and that a most 
interesting one. Both in Isaiah and in Ezekiel there 
are fifteen distinct references to the Holy Spirit, which 
for the most part can only have their fulfilment in the 
present dispensation or in one which is yet to come. 
Those days were characterized by the failure of kings 
and priests to fulfil their several vocations. The kings 
had become entangled with the idol worship of their 
heathen neighbours ; the priests, smitten with the leprosy 
of the same unfaithfulness, had been superseded by the 
prophets. These men, devoted only to the will of God, 
found nothing amid the decadence of the time to satisfy 
their hearts and minister to their spiritual well-being. 
But they were men of vision; and beyond the clouds 
and the mists they saw the gleam of another day, and 
they foretold the coming of the Spirit in plenitude and 
in power. An instance of these foretellings is the 
prophecy of Joel, which Peter quoted upon the Day of 
Pentecost, to emphasize the historic value of what men 
saw passing around them. Amid the darkness and the 
gloom which had fallen upon the nation, the Spirit of 
God became the Spirit of hope; so that the essential prin- 
ciples of life were not forgotten. 


THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 93 


The Spirit of God was the Spirit of conviction while 
sin worked itself out from Fall to Flood; He was a 
Spirit of detailed service while the people of God were 
being organized into a nationality; He was a Spirit of 
strength while the people were fighting for the land, and 
were casting out those who had deeply sinned; and He 
became a Spirit of hope when the peculiar people had 
passed into a condition of apostasy and wandering. He 
lit the horizon with the glow of approaching day. He 
spoke to ears that listened, and revealed to eyes that 
gazed; and thus, though they did not perfectly under- 
stand, men had some dim foreshadowing of the glories 
of these days of fulness of spiritual power. 

Such is a very rapid summary of the work of the 
Spirit in that whole period from the Fall to the 
Messiah.* 

No clear view of present-day aspects of the Spirit’s 
ministry is possible apart from a just and clear concep- 
tion of His place in history. The Spirit Who brooded 
over chaos, and Who breathed into nature the life which 
blushes and blooms into beauty in every branch and leaf 
and flower—that same Spirit has always been interested 
in the affairs of men. ‘There is, however, a very distinct 
difference between the method of His work in those 
bygone days, and the method of His work to-day. In 


1A small booklet by my beloved and lamented friend the Rev. 
G. H. C. Macgregor, M.A., entitled Things of the Spirit, con- 
tains the whole of the passages bearing upon this subject, and 
thus affords a valuable aid to a careful study of the story of the 
presence of the Spirit of God among men from the Fall to the 
days of Jesus. 


y 


94 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


those days there was no Church. To speak of the 
Israelitish nation as a Church in the sense in which that 
word is used to-day is to show no true understanding 
of what the Church really is. Consequently there was 
no direct, present, actual demonstration of the Spirit to 
the nation. Most wonderful of all, Old Testament 
, times knew nothing of the Holy Spirit as the Sanctifier 
of individual lives, in the New Testament sense of 
cleansing and keeping. Of course Old Testament 
saints might have sung as truthfully as the saints of the 
new covenant :— 
And every virtue we possess, 
And every victory won, 


And every thought of holiness, 
Are His alone. 


The measure of His work, however, was very differ- 
ent; and the sanctification which embodies all virtue, 
ensures perpetual victory, and subjects every thought to 
the obedience of Christ, which is holiness, was unknown. 
These wonderful manifestations of His power were re- 
served for the present dispensation. It is full of de- 
lightful interest to trace the work of the Spirit through 
the centuries, preparing the way for the coming of the 
Christ, until the great moment came which was the ful- 
ness of the time. Over all the movements of men the 
Spirit brooded still, coming as a Spirit of conviction of 
sin, and as a Spirit of special wisdom for definite service, 
and yet again as a Spirit of strength for conflict, and 


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THE SPIRIT FROM THE FALL TO THE MESSIAH 95 


continually as a Spirit of hope amid decadence. Thus 
the things of God were made known amid men, in the 
measure necessary and possible, by that Spirit of God, 
Who, within the mystery of the Deity, is the Con- 


sciousness of God, and the Revealer of that Deity to 
man, 


Vil 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF THE 
MESSIAH 


URING the days of Israel’s decay the Spirit, 
through the prophets, had spoken of the coming 
One. ‘Hope had been preserved in the heart of the na- 
tion through the visions of future glory contained in the 
wonderful words that had been uttered by the messen- 
gers of the King. Even these voices had been silent for 
nearly four hundred years, from the days of Malachi to 
those of John the Baptist. During that period, how- 
ever, a small remnant had kept the hope of Israel 
brightly burning, by loyalty to the principles of govern- 
ment which had been so often declared. 

At last the long silence was broken by John, who © 
announced the advent of One Whose distinguishing 
work should be that of baptizing men with the Holy 
Spirit and with fire. To the vast crowds that gathered 
upon the banks of the Jordan he said: I indeed baptize 
you with water; but there cometh He that is mightier 
than I, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to 

96 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 97 


unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and © 
with fire.. As the Spirit bore a close relation to Jesus 
as perfect and unfallen Man, so also did He to the office 
and work of the Messiah. At the commencement of 
His ministry the Lord claimed as His own the sacred 
anointing of the Holy Spirit for the fulfilment of His 
mission :— 

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, 

Because He anointed Me to preach good tidings to 

the poor: 

He hath sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, 

And recovering of sight to the blind, 

To set at liberty them that are bruised, 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 

And He began to say unto them, To-day hath thts 
scripture been fulfilled in your ears.” 

The Spirit brooded over the chaos of old, the power 
of God in creation; the Spirit had been present through 
all the history of the race, coming specially upon men, 
for special purposes as God willed. Now that the new 
dispensation was to be ushered in, and the new order 
initiated, as the Master began that work which He has 
not yet completed, but towards the completion of which 
He is still working, He claimed that the Spirit rested 
upon Him, as the anointing for His mission. The 
Lord’s view of His own mission is revealed in this auo- 
tation. He is anointed 


4TLuke iii. 16. * Luke iv. 18, 19, 21. 


98 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


To preach good tidings to the poor: 

To proclaim release to the captives, 

And recovering of sight to the blind, 

To set at liberty them that are bruised, 

To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. 
Standing in the synagogue, reading the words of the 
prophet, claiming their fulfilment in His own Person, 
He initiated that new age described by the prophet as 
the acceptable year of the Lord. 

The whole of this preparatory work of Jesus Christ 
was accomplished under the guidance and in the power 
of the Spirit. The anointing took place at His bap- 
tism: Now it came to pass, when all the people were 
baptized, that, Jesus also having been baptized, and 
praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit 
descended in a bodily form, as a dove, upon Him, and 
a voice came out of heaven, Thou art My beloved Son; 
in Thee I am well pleased.t 

Immediately afterwards He was led by the Spirit in 
the Temptation experiences: And Jesus, full of the Holy 
Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the 
Spirit in the wilderness.” 

Following this, He entered upon His public work in 
the power of the Spirit: And Jesus returned in the 
power of the Spirit into Galilee.® 

There is a clearly marked sequence here. Anointed 
by the Spirit, full of the Spirit, led by the Spirit, in the 


1 Luke iii. 21, 22. *Luke iv. 1. * Luke iv. 14. 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 99 


power of the Spirit—thus He entered upon the specific 
work of His Messiahship. 

During the exercise ot that Messiahship He uttered 
words to His disciples upon one occasion which de- 
mand special attention: If ye then, being evil, know 
how to give good gifts unto your children, how much 
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask Him? If it were possible to occupy the 
actual position of the men who heard these words, it 
would also be possible to understand how startling a 
statement it was. They knew what the Scriptures of 
the Old Testament had to teach about the Holy Spirit. 
They thought of Him as coming on special men for 
special work, by the direct giving of God apart from hu- 
man seeking. The thought of asking for the Spirit was 
absolutely foreign to the whole economy of the past. 
The circumstances under which Jesus made this state- 
ment must be carefully noted. The disciples had 
watched Him at prayer, and, being attracted by some- 
thing in His attitude or appearance, said to Him: Lord, 
teach us to pray.2, He immediately gave them a perfect 
pattern known as the Lord’s Prayer, but more correctly 
- spoken of as the disciples’ prayer. He then proceeded 
to teach them, by analogy, how that God was always 
waiting to answer importunate prayer. He used a con- 
trast to teach the truth, showing how a friend who is 
unwilling to rise from rest to supply the necessity of 


2Luke xi. 13. ? Luke x1. 1. 


100 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


another will do so if that other be importunate enough 
and continue his asking. He summed up the whole 
thought of importunate prayer in those words tnat pul- 
sate with meaning: Ask—seek—knock.* 

He then led them along another line of thought con- 
cerning prayer; and using the relationship of a father 
to a child as illustration, He declared God’s willingness 
to give the best gifts to men: If ye then, being evil, 
know how to give good gifts unto your children, how 
much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
Spirit to them that ask Him?* Their request to be 
taught how to pray resulted in their hearing the most 
startling announcement concerning spiritual matters 
that had ever fallen upon their ears. They were told 
that if they asked of God with importunity, and under- 
standing that God would give good gifts only, then they 
might have the Holy Spirit. 

This statement must have so staggered these men as 
to surprise them almost into inaction; for it is evident 
that they never asked for the Spirit, and therefore never 
received Him in answer to their own asking. This text 
is perpetually quoted as having a present-day applica- 
tion. This is due to a failure to draw the line of dis- 
tinction between the various phases of the Master’s mis- 
sion. The words were spoken to a handful of Jewish 
disciples gathered around the Jewish Messiah. He 
was unveiling to them a great secret in all God’s deal- 


1Luke xi, 9. ? Luke xi. 13. 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 101 


ings with men—that God would give the Holy Spirit to 
men who asked, if they did so according to the law of 
prayer laid down. There is not, however, any evidence 
that they ever had the Holy Spirit, until that Spirit 
came along another line of communication. Before the 
Master left them He said: I will make request of the 
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter. . . 
the Spirit of truth.+ 
On the previous occasion He had said in effect, Ask, 
and ye shall receive the Spirit; but they did not ask, and 
did not receive. They never truly saw Christ, nor un- 
derstood His mission, nor entered into the deep underly- 
ing secrets of His life, until after the Spirit had come 
upon them in answer to His asking. Our Lord here re- 
vealed to them the will of God, the attitude of the Di- 
vine heart, the preparedness of the Father to bestow 
the wondrous gift of the Holy Spirit upon them, but 
there is no evidence whatever that they ever asked or 
ever received in answer to their own asking. 
One of the most difficult passages to translate, per- 
_ haps, in the whole of the Gospel of Luke is the one 
which reads: J came to cast fire upon the earth; and 
what will I, if it 1s already kindled? But I have a bap- 
_ tism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till 
tt be accomplished!’ The if marks the sigh of desire. A 
_ paraphrase of the passage may contribute to its elucida- 
tion: I came to cast fire upon the earth; and what will 


1John xiv. 16 (margin). ?Luke xii. 49, 50. 


102 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


1? Would that it were already kindled! ‘The old ac- 
ceptation of the verse is most incorrect : I came to cast 
fire upon the earth; and what will I, if already I find 
that fire kindled? The passage is a soliloquy? Jesus 
turned from teaching His disciples, and it seems as 
though He lifted His eyes and looked out upon the ne- 
cessities of men, and said: JI came to cast fire upon the 
earth: and what will I? If it were aiready kindled! or, 
Would that it were already kindled! Then He pro- 
ceeded: I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how 
am I straitened till it be accomplished! As though He 
had said it was impossible for Him to cast this fire, as 
He desired, until He had Himself passed through the 
baptism that awaited Him. 

This scattering of fire refers to the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit which John had already predicted: J 1- 
deed baptize you with water; but there cometh He that 
is mightier than I, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not 
worthy to wnloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy 
Spirit and with fire.” 

In the Acts of the Apostles is chronicled the Master’s 
own reference after His Resurrection to that statement 
of John: John indeed baptized with water ; but ye shall 
be baptized with the Holy S pirit not many days hence." 

In connection with the baptism of the Spirit at Pen- 
tecost it is recorded: There appeared unto them tongues 
parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon each one 


1Luke iii. 16. 7 Acts i. 5. 


ee 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 103 


of them.’ Fire was the symbol of the Spirit, purifying 
and energizing. Jesus took up the thought of John: 
John baptized with water, He with fire. 

In the light of these passages, it is evident that the 
fire referred to is that of the Spirit which Christ was 
waiting to scatter upon the earth, and He declared that 
until His Passion-baptism was accomplished He was 
unable to fulfil this purpose. 

Jesus, anointed by the Spirit, led by the Spirit, full of 
the Spirit, was waiting to communicate to other men 
that fulness which resided in Himself, but He was un- 
able to do this until the Cross was an accomplished fact. 

That reveals the character of the years of our Lord’s 
ministry. He was laying foundations, laying them deep 
and strong, upon the righteousness of God in His own 
life; He was preparing for the tremendous transactions 
of the Day of Pentecost, and for all that should follow 
therefrom. Filled with the Spirit, led by the Spirit, He 
looked upon men with eyes all lit by tender love, and 
- longed to communicate to them this gift of an indwell- 
ing Spirit, yet was unable to scatter the fire until His 
atoning work was done. 

During these years of public life our Lord gave teach- 
ing concerning the Holy Spirit which has only been 
thoroughly understood and valued since He passed 
through the gateway of death into the larger life beyond. 
All that it is necessary for men to know about the opera- 


» | * Acts ii. 3. 


104 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


tion of the Spirit in this dispensation Jesus Christ Him- 
self declared ; and this teaching occupied a most import- 
ant place in His ministry. It is found wholly within 
the Gospel of John,! and may be divided into two parts 
—that which is indirect and suggestive, and that which 
is direct and positive. The indirect and suggestive 
teaching of Jesus fell from His lips upon different oc- 
casions—once to the woman of Samaria, once to a 
company of Jews, once to the crowds of people who 
thronged the streets at the Feast of Tabernacles. The 
direct teaching of Jesus was given, to His disciples 
only, in the Paschal discourses. These were the last 
utterances of Christ to them, and contain a perfect 
statement concerning the work of the Spirit. 

In the indirect teaching of Christ, the first instance 
is that of His conversation with the woman of Sa- 
maria: Jesus answered and said unto her, Every one 


that drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but who- — 


soever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall 
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be- 
come in him a well of water springing up unto eternal 


1 Every reference made in this chapter—and this is not an 
accident, it is the result of careful analysis of the whole teaching 
of Christ—is taken from the writings of Luke or of John. There 
is scarcely anything recorded by Matthew or Mark of the rela- 
tion of the Spirit to Christ in His work. Matthew views Christ 
purely as a Jewish Messiah, and necessarily omits the glory of 
the larger outlook. Mark views Him as a Servant, and sees Him 
stripped of all supernatural power; but Luke, the Gospel of the 
universal Saviour, and John, the Gospel of a Divine Lord and 
Master, contain the revelation of the secret forces that made 
His ministry. 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 105 


life... The woman had no clear understanding of the 
depth of that message, nor had those who heard it from _ 
her lips. In common with other words of Christ, it 
has only come to be understood in the light of the 
Spirit’s dispensation. The water which He gives is the 
living water of the Spirit, perpetually springing up in 
the soul of man unto eternal life. 

Another statement is contained in a discourse to the 
Jews directed against materialistic conceptions of com- 
munion with God. He declared that it is only in the 
realm of the spiritual that this communion can be main- 
tained: I am the Bread of life: he that cometh to Me 
shall not hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never 
thirst.” 

The third and last was uttered on the great day of the 
feast, and is a beautiful statement concerning the minis- 
try of the Spirit and the relation of man to that minis- 
try: Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, 
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him 
come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, as 
the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers 
of living water.* Then follows John’s inspired exposi- 
tion of those words: But this spake He of the Spirit, 
which they that believed on Him were to receive: for 
the Spirit was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet 
glorified. * 


*John iv. 13, 14. 2John vi. 35. ® John vii. 37, 38. ‘John 
Vil. 40. : 


106 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


For this He was preparing by doing a work which 
would arrest the attention of men and call for their 
faith; and He declared that men responding to that de- 
mand, and exercising faith in Himself, should enter 
into a new region of life, in which their own personal 
thirst should be quenched, and out of them flow rivers 
of living water. All this is condensed truth about the 
Spirit, uttered by Christ during His life, and only fully 
understood in the light of subsequent events. 

The Paschal discourses are too important to be dis- 
missed hurriedly, and therefore will be considered in 


following chapters. It will be sufficient here to state 


their nature. The One of Whom the Spirit was to 
speak, spoke of the Spirit, by the Spirit. The Spirit’s 
mission is to unfold the glories of the Christ ; and men 
know this to be the case, because the Christ unfolded the 
glory of the Spirit. There is the most wonderful com- 
mitunion between Son and Spirit revealed in this teach- 
ing. 

The last point of importance in this connection is the 
prophetic breathing of the Spirit upon men by Jesus 
Christ: Jesus therefore said to them again, Peace be 
unto you: as the Father hath sent Me, even so send I 
you. And when He had said this, He breathed on 
them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Spint: 
whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto 
them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.* 


4 John xx. 21-23. 


Oe ete ae ae ae eee li 


THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 107 


The place these words occupied in the work of Jesus 
must be considered, if they are rightly to be understood. 
He had risen; the Passion-baptism was over. He could 
no longer say: I have a baptism to be baptized with: and 
how am I straitened! He had been baptized with that 
baptism, He was no longer straitened in the same sense, 
but He had not yet ascended into the presence of God. 
Not until He had actually taken His place in the heaven- 
lies, in the double right of life and death, standing for 
Himself in the power of a perfect life, and for us in the 
power of an atoning death—not until He had represent- 
ed men in the presence-chamber of the King, could He 
shed forth that great gift of fire which He had come to 
scatter upon them. 

The former treatise I made, O Theophilus, concern- 
ing all that Jesus began both to do and to teach, until the 
day in which He was received up, after that He had 
given commandment through the Holy Spirit unto the 
apostles whom He had chosen.’ For forty days He tar- 
ried, giving them commandments, and it is very won- 
derful to notice that the risen Christ worked in the en- 
ergy of the Spirit. He gave these men their com- 
mandments through the Holy Spirit; and, among other 
_ things, He stood in their midst and breathed upon them. 
The explanation of that act is to be found in what He 
said immediately before: As the Father hath sent Me, 
even so send I you. And when He had said this, He 


3 Acts i. 1, 2. 


108 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


breathed on them. He declared the law of continuity of 
service, that these men were to pick up the threads of 
the work that He had Himself been doing, and were to 
weave them into warp and woof, until the whole perfect 
fabric should be completed. As the Father hath sent 
Me, even so send I you. He had been sent anointed 
with the Spirit; and now He breathed on His disciples, 
and said: Receive ye the Holy Spirit—As the Father 
hath sent Me, even so send I you. We had been sent by 
the Father in the power of the Spirit, and He sent them 
in the power of that self-same Spirit. 

That this breathing of Christ was a prophetic act is 
proved by the subsequent facts. Before He ascended 
Fle told them that they were not to go, but to tarry until 
they were endued with power from on high. It was a 
prophetic breathing. His Passion-baptism was over; 
He stood among His followers—the little band chosen 
to carry on His victories and do His work; and, looking 
at them, He said: As the Father hath sent Me, even so 
send I you. . . . Receive ye the Holy Spirit?’ It wasa 
typical act, suggesting the power in which they were to 
go to the work He committed to them. 

The whole subject may thus be summarized. The 
day of new power and of new light was prepared by 
the ministry of the Son of God and the Son of Man. 
The light and the glory of the Gospel were created in 
the mysterious energy, suffering, and agony of the life 


*John xx. 22, 21. *John xx. 21, 22. 


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Fea hate 


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THE SPIRIT DURING THE MISSION OF MESSIAH 109 


of the God-man. The Spirit Who brooded over the 
chaos, Who had visited men, Who had always been in- 
terested in men, and Who had ever carried out the work | 
of God among men, came upon Christ, dwelt in Him, 
energized Him, and prepared, in His Person, for a 
larger dispensation. Through His life the Spirit pre- 
pared for that death of mystery, as the result of which 
the Spirit should pass into the life of men, for pardon, 
purity, and power. 


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Weary and sad and sorrow-spent were they 


In that still upper room, 


While the rich crimson of the closing day 


Was fading into gloom; 


And over all, benumbing soul and sense, 
Hung the cold shadow of a dread suspense. 


The promise of a Spirit yet to come, 
That other Paraclete, 


To lead them on to Truth’s eternal home 


And guide their wandering feet; 
They could not soothe the anguish of 


their heart, 


They ask’d in sadness, Must their Lord depart? 


Yes, after all, or clear and open speech, 
Or sayings dark and dim, 


They yet had much to learn and He to teach, 


Ere they could rest in Him, 


Ere they could preach His words with cleanséd lips, 


Or He impart His full Apocalypse. 


‘112 


E, H. PLuMptre. 


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Ba ed A Tt NA nn a i en guy 


VEE 
THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT 


HE little group of men who had followed the Lord 
during the years of His public ministry gathered 
about Him at the Paschal board. Judas had left the 
company. The others were filled with sadness. It is 
not necessary to attempt an analysis of their sorrow. 
Probably there was a great deal of selfishness mixed 
with it; but there is selfishness in all sorrow, save that 
which is under the constraint of the Holy Spirit. The 
shadow of approaching separation fell upon them. The 
Master administered comfort to their hearts. He told 
them that He was going away, but they were not to be 
left comfortless, or, as the word really is, orphans. This 
statement He explained by unfolding for them the great 
principles of the new dispensation of the Holy Spirit. 
He gave them a system of teaching on the coming, 
character, and mission of the Spirit, with the results fol- 
lowing—a system which is clear, concise, and sufficient. 
His first statement concerning the coming of the 
113 


114 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Spirit is contained in the words: And I will pray the 
Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that 


He may be with you for ever.2 The Holy Spirit is to 
be the gift of the Father through the Son. 

The marginal reading in the Revised Version is, I 
will make request of the Father; but neither rendering 
perfectly conveys the thought that underlies the word 
that Jesus used. The conversation of Martha with 
Jesus, when Lazarus lay dead, throws light on this 
word: And even now I know that, whatsoever Thou 
shalt ask of God, God will give Thee.® Martha used a 
word for prayer, the word translated ask, which Jesus 
constantly used when speaking of the prayers of other 
persons, but never of His own prayers. It is a word 
that conveys the idea of asking as a beggar, as a pauper ; 
and that is how men always pray. The word translated 
pray here is a special one, never used about prayer ex- 
cept in the Gospel of John, and always in that Gospel 
concerning the prayers of Jesus Christ. This reveals 
the fact that the prayers of Christ differed from those 


_ ¥ of other persons. Theword suggests, not the petition of 


some one that asks for something as a favour, but the 
‘petition of one who is on a perfect equality with the per- 
son to whom it is presented. The thought has within it 
the idea of perfect fellowship. Perhaps that is better 
conveyed by the translation: J will enquire of the Fa- 


2In this section, by the coming of the Spirit, His advent on 
the Day of Pentecost to usher in a dispensation is referred to. 
*John xiv. 16.> * John xh. 22.- 


THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT 115 


ther, and He shall give you another Comforter.) This is 
by no means a perfect translation, but it approximates 
more closely to the intention of the original word than 
either of the other phrases. Christ declared that He 
was going to the Father, and that He would enquire of, 
in the sense of holding converse or having fellowship 
with the Father, and, as the direct result, the Father 
would send them the Holy Spirit. Jesus, the Jewish 
Messiah, had said to His disciples: Jf ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, 
how much more shall your Father which is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask Him?? That was a 
purely dispensational and Jewish statement; and the 
men never asked and never received. Now that the 
Master was leaving them, He said tothem: J will ask, 
I will enquire of, I will pray the Father, and He shall 
give you. | 

Immediately these great discourses were ended, Christ 
moved into a higher realm, that of intercession; and 
_ John records His words in the presence of God for His 
people. In that prayer the Lord did not mention the 
Holy Spirit. The reason for this is to be found in the 
fact that the prayer for the Holy Spirit could not be 
offered until His Passion was an accomplished fact. He 
could not ask for the Spirit save upon the basis of a 
perfect fellowship, based upon a finished work, until— 
no longer straitened—He should stand in the presence 


*Jotin xiv. 16. 7 Matt. vii. 11. 


a 


nu6 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


of God. Then, in response to the presence 
in the highest place of the One Who had accomplished 
the work, God would give. 

The teaching then, of this first statement of Christ, 
otras the coming of the Spirit, is that the Spirit 
is the gift of the Father, through the Son, upon the 
basis of His finished work. In that lies one point of 
difference between this dispensation and all that have 
preceded it. The Spirit came upon men in the past for 
specific purposes, at special seasons; but the Son of His 
love passed into the presence of God, having accom- 
plished the Divine purpose, and upon the basis of that 
finished work the Spirit was poured out. 

Concerning the Spirit’s coming, the Master also said: 
These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding 
with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, 
Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach 
you all things.1 This reveals that the Spirit is to be the 
Messenger of the Father in the name of the Son. 

Of His own coming Jesus said, I am come in My Fa- 
ther’s name, and, I told you, and ye believe not: the 
works that I doin My Father’s name, these bear witness 
of Me. Upon two occasions He distinctly stated that 
He came and worked in His Father’s name, that the 
name of God was the sphere of His work. Now He de- 
clared: The Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send 
in My name, He shall teach you all things. As the Son 


ae 


+ John xiv. 25.20.04, 4 JODO Vaasa seers 


THE COMING OF THE SPIRIT 117 


came in the name of the Father, and as the name of the 
Father was the sphere of the work of the Son, so the 
Spirit was to come in the name of the Son, and the 
name of the Son was to be the sphere of the Spirit’s 
work. This is perfect continuity. 

A third statement on this subject is contained in the 
words: But when the Comforter is come, Whom I 
will send unto you from the Father.1 This declares the 
Spirit to be the Messenger of the Son, from the Father. 

This reference can only be understood by looking at 
its context: He that hateth Me hateth My Father also. 
If I had not done among them the works which none 
other did, they had not had sin: but now have they both 
seen and hated both Me and My Father. But this 
cometh to pass, that the word may be fulfilled that is 
written in their law, They hated Me without a cause. 
But when the Comforter is come, Whom I will send 
unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, 
which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness 
of Me.* Jesus had lived among men, unknown, misun- 
derstood—men had hated Him; and now the Spirit was 
to be sent by the Son, as from the Father, in vindica- 
tion of the character, ministry, and mission of the Son. 

Yet one other declaration follows: Nevertheless I tell 
you the truth; It 1s expedient for you that I go away: 
for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto 
you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you.* Thus the 


Eyobn xv. 26;° * John xv->'23-26.- * John.xvi.. 7. 


118 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Spirit is directly the Messenger and Gift of the Son. 
He will Himself send the Spirit to His disciples upon 
the basis of His union with the Father, a union consum- 
mated as God and Man. He will send the Spirit, in 
virtue of His ascended Manhood, and the perpetual re- 
ception of that Manhood into the Godhead. 

To sum up. Jesus enquired of the Father, and in 
answer to the enquiry of the Christ, God gave the 
Spirit. The Spirit became the Messenger of the Fa- 
ther; and His sphere of work was to be the name of the 
Son. This Spirit became God’s Messenger concerning 
the Son, vindicating His work and His teaching. By 
virtue of the perfect union of the Son with the Father, 
the Spirit is the gift of the Son. 


iat itn cin 


IX 
DHE CHARACTER-OF THE SPIRIT 


HE teaching of Christ concerning the character of 

the Spirit is set forth first in the words: And I 

all pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
Comforter.1 This word Comforter conveys the first 
thought concerning the character of the Spirit. It is 
indeed impossible to find a translation that will reveal 
everything contained within the great word Paraclete. 
It is conceded that originally the word had what may be 
spoken of as a passive meaning. It indicated one called 
to the side of another, and therefore one who, by his 
coming, annulled the condition of orphanage or deso- 
lateness. But then, in its use, both in Classic and New 
Testament Greek, the word passed into another realm, 
becoming active, and suggesting the thought of inter- 
cession, advocacy, pleading. The word is peculiar to 
the writings of John. It occurs four times in his Gos- 
pel, once in his Epistle. In the Gospel it is translated 
Comforter; in the Epistle, Advocate. In the Gospel it 


1John xiv. 16. 
119 


120 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


is used of the Spirit; in the Epistle it is used of Christ. 
The use of it, in the Epistle, is that of Christ standing in 
the presence of God, as the Advocate of the believer, 
the Representative, the Intercessor, the Pleader. That 
is the word and idea used of the Spirit in these dis- 
courses of Christ. It is, first, one called to the side of 
another. That surely was the first thought in the mind 
of the Lord. He had ever been accessible to these 
men. They had been able to approach Him with their 
questionings and perplexities. He was about to leave 
them, but they were not to be deserted. Another was 
to take His place, and annul the condition of orphanage. 
The Spirit is therefore the Spirit of love, banishing the 
sense of despair and desolateness. 

The word Paraclete also suggests the thought of an 
active friendship. He will come, not to plead with God 
for men—that is the work of Jesus—but to plead with 
men for God, to intercede with men for Christ, and to 
win, by His intercession, the whole territory of man’s 
being for the dominance of the living Lord Whom He 
represents. In this great word there are infinite 
stretches of meaning. To the waiting people of God 

| the character of the Spirit is love; He will come to fill 
the gap, to take the place of the tender Christ, to be to 
the orphaned disciples a Comforter nigh at hand—to 
comfort them, and to do it by pleading within them the 
cause of their absent Lord and Master. 

Another fact concerning the character of the Spirit is 


tHe CHARACTER OF THE SPIRIT 121 


contained in the words the Spirit of truth. He is the 
inner life of truth, the fact of truth, and therefore will 
give the exposition of truth. These subjects necessarily 


overlap each other. This phrase the Spirit of truth has . 


its most wonderful explanation in the mission of the 
Spirit; but it is used here only as revealing His charac- 
ter. How fitting and beautiful this wonderful economy, 
that the Spirit, Who is Himself the Spirit of truth, 
should come to be Intercessor for, and Administrator of 
the affairs of the One Who said, J am the .. . truth? 

Another fact is declared concerning the character of 
the Spirit: the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit. The 
Spirit of holiness—this reveals the moral character of 
the Spirit, and so declares the proper use and ultimate 
issue of truth. 

And yet again: He shall teach you all things.—He 
shall bear witness.* He is the Spirit of revelation, the 
Spirit of illumination. 

These sayings of the Master record His teaching con- 
cerning the character of the Spirit. He is the Spirit of 
love, the Comforter ; the Spirit of truth, thrice repeated ; 
the Spirit of holiness, the Holy Spirit ; the Spirit of rev- 
elation, the One Who witnesses and teaches. 


1John xiv.17, xv. 26, xvi. 13. 7John xiv.6. *John xiv. 26. 
‘John xiv. 26, xv. 26. 


X 
THE MISSION OF THE SRIRITE 


ESUS also declared in these discourses the nature of 
the mission of the Spirit. First, His mission to the 
disciples: And I will pray the Father, and He shall 
give you another Comforter, that He may be with you 
for ever, even the Spirit of truth: Whom the world 
cannot recewe; for tt beholdeth Him not, neither 
| knoweth Him: ye know Him; for He abideth with you, 
and shall be m you. Here are two great statements. 
First, that the mission of the Spirit is to abide with 
the people of God. The children of God have no need 
to pray that the Spirit may be given to them: that He 
may be with you for ever. Then the Master proceeds 
to lay emphasis upon the method in which He will abide: 
He abideth with you, and shall be in you. The Spirit 
abides with the Church, by taking up His abode in the 
individual. He is no longer a transient Guest, but the 
indwelling life of the believer; and He creates and main- 
tains, in spite of all apparent breaking up, the one cath- 


2 John ‘xiv. :16,. 17. 
I22 


THE MISSION OF THE SPIRIT 123 


olic Church of Christ. His work with regard to the be- 
liever is revealed: He shall teach you all things, and 
bring to your remembrance all that I said unto you.— 
He shall bear witness of Me.t—He shall guide you into - 
all the truth.*—He shall declare unto you the things that 
are to come.—He shall glorify Me.* 

Secondly, His mission to the world: And He, when 
He 1s come, will convict the world in respect of sin, and 
of righteousness, and of judgment:* of sin, as having a 
new centre—of sin, because they believe not on Me; of 
righteousness, as having a new possibility—I go to the 
Father; and of judgment, as being accomplished—the 
prince of this world hath been judged. This is consid- 
ered more fully in a subsequent chapter.® 


*John xiv. 26. ?John xv. 26. *John xvi. 13, 14. *John 
xvi. 8-11. 5° Chapter xiv. 


XL 
THE RESULTS OF THE SPIRIT’S COMING 


HE teaching of Jesus is clear also as to the results 
of the Spirit’s work: I will not leave you deso- 
late: I come unto you. Orphanage is to cease; there is 
to be no desolateness.. This has been dealt with as part. 
of the work of the Spirit. Considered from the side 
of the experience of the believer, it is indeed full of the 
deepest comfort. The sense of loneliness never comes 
to the soul born of the Spirit and living in perpetual obe- 
dience to Him. Men hunger after the personal pres- 
ence of the Christ ; but, in proportion as they are yielded 
to the Holy Spirit, they have that presence, and that in 
a sense which was impossible to His disciples, while He 
was here upon earth. He was then limited and local- 
ized, and men had to wait for an opportunity of con- 
verse. To-day He is ever with every member of the 
Body ; and for fellowship, the elements of time and place 
with their necessary limitations, are absent. 
Again: But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, 


4John xiv. 18. 
124 


THE RESULTS OF THE SPIRIT’S COMING 125 


Whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach 
you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I 
said unto you. Peace I leave with you; My peace I 
give unto you. The two verses are intimately con- 
nected. All the sense of peace that resulted from the 
presence and comradeship of Christ, becomes perpetual 
in the new and clearer realization of Himself and His 
teaching resulting from the abiding of the Spirit. The 
way in which the Master gave His peace was not as the 
world giveth, because He gave it by the gift of the Com- 
forter. The second result of the presence of the Spirit 
is that of peace. 

Again: But when the Comforter is come, Whom I 
will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of 
truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear 
witness of Me: and ye also bear witness, because ye 
have been with Me from the beginning.? The third re- 
sult of the Spirit’s work is power to witness. This 
declaration is closely connected with that statement of 
Peter: We are witnesses of these things; and so 1s the 
Holy Spirit.2 The power to witness, according to the 
prophecy of Christ, and the testimony of Peter, was 
by the coming of the Spirit. 

One other result: He shall glorify Me: for He shall 
take of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. All things 
whatsoever the Father hath are Mine: therefore sad I, 
that He taketh of Mine, and shall declare it unto you. 


1John xiv. 26, 27. 7John xv. 26, 27. * Acts v. 


126 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a 
little while, and ye shall see Met. The Lord did not 
here refer to His second coming, but to the fact that 
when the Spirit came He would come by the Spirit, and 
men would see Him in the ministry of the Spirit. The 
last result, then, of the Spirit’s work is that of vision. 

Gather up these four results. Christians are not 
orphans, and therefore not desolate. Peace is theirs— 
“peace which Christ gives, as the world cannot give, 
through the ministry of a Person ever present. In the 
strength of that peace they become His witnesses, be- 
cause they have a perpetual vision of the Lord. | 

This is a brief analysis of the Master’s teaching con- 
cerning the Spirit. The unfolding of all that is con- 
tained within this teaching is to be found, historically, 
in the Acts of the Apostles and the subsequent history 
of the Church, and, doctrinally, in the Epistles. 

The teaching of Jesus is unified truth; and the inter- 
pretation of all that follows must ever be in harmony 
with the principles laid down in these most wonderful 
discourses. There is much of glory and beauty re- 
vealed in the Acts and in the Epistles, which is the 
blossoming into flower and fruit of that which is here 
in root and principle. 


1John xvi. 14-16. 


BOOK V 
THE PENTECOSTAL AGE 


127 


When God of old came down from heaven, 
In power and wrath He came; 

Before His feet the clouds were riven, 
Half darkness and half flame. 


* * * * * * 


But when He came the second time, 
He came in power and love; 

Softer than gale at morning prime 
Hover’d His holy Dove. 


The fires that rush’d on Sinai down 
In sudden torrents dread, 
Now gently light, a glorious crown, 
On every sainted head. 


Like arrows went those lightnings forth, 
Wing’d with the sinner’s doom; 
But these, like tongues o’er all the earth, 

_Proclaiming life to come. 


And as on Israel’s awe-struck ear 
The voice, exceeding loud, 

The trump, that angels wake to hear, 
Thrill’d from the deep, dark cloud,— 


So, when the Spirit of our God 
Came down His flock to find, 

A voice from heaven was heard abroad, 
A rushing, mighty wind. 


ok oe bs * OR ie 


It fills the Church of God; it fills 
The sinful world around; 
Only in stubborn hearts and wills 


No place for it is found. | 
J. Kesie. 


128 


XII 
PENTECOST 


HE Master finished His teaching, and passed to 
His Cross. Having accomplished its sacred 

work, He rose from the dead, tarried for forty days 
among His disciples, appearing to them for special pur- 
poses, and giving them commandments through the 
Holy Spirit. He then ascended, leaving them one im- 
mediate instruction—that they should wait for the ad- 
vent of the Spirit. He had told them that they were to 
go iio all the world, and preach the Gospel to the whole 
creation ;* He had told them also that they were to make 
disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name 
of the Father and of the Son and of the HolySpirit.? He 
had given them instructions conditioning all the service 
that lay before them; and then He charged them that 
they were not to begin any of the work until they were 
endued with power from on high. He left upon them 
that one restricting word: He charged them not to de- 
part from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the 
Father. No command was given to these men to pray 


RACtS 4072.. Matk vie ts.) .° Matt. xxvili,.to..0* Acts i) a. 
— 129 : 


130 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


for the Comforter, nor is it chronicled that they did so. 
It is somewhat remarkable that commentators almost 
without exception seem to have taken it for granted that 
the ten days of waiting were spent in prayer for the 
Holy Spirit. Neither in the command of Jesus, nor in 
the chronicled facts, is there any warrant for imagining 
that such was the case. They were waiting. It is cer- 
tainly stated that they gave themselves to prayer; 
but it is not asserted that this was for the Holy 
Spirit. ; 
During that time they fell into an undoubted blunder, 
when they endeavored to choose a successor to Judas. 
Having selected certain men, they proceeded to cast lots 
to decide which of them should be in the apostolic suc- 
cession. It is evident that the one upon whom the lot 
fell never was an apostle in the intention of the Master. 
The one chosen by the Lord to fill the gap was Saul of 
Tarsus. When the City of God, described in Revela- 
tion, shall be perfect and complete, it is to have twelve 
foundations, and in the foundations the names of the 
twelve apostles of the Lamb; and the name of Paul, not 
Matthias, will surely be the twelfth. Instead of wait- 
ing, they proceeded to make appointments. It is no 
more possible to appoint an officer in the Church, than 
to preach the Gospel, save by the guidance of the Spirit | 
of God. 

After ten days the Holy Spirit was poured out upon 
the waiting company in that upper room in Jerusalem. 


PENTECOST 131 


As He came, there was a sound like a mighty rushing 
wind, heard not only by the people there assembled, but 
by Jerusalem at large; for it is declared that when the 
people heard the sound they ran together to see what 
these things could be. Beside this symbolism that ap- 
pealed to hearing, the coming was one that appealed to 
sight; fire, parting asunder, sat in the form of a tongue 
upon the head of each disciple. Beyond this twofold 
miracle of sight and sound, there was the wonderful be- 
stowment of the gift of tongues, by which the baptized 
men and women spoke in other languages than their 
own. 

The place Pentecost occupied in the Di/jne economy 
was of great importance. 

(i) The Holy Spirit was poured out upon the Day 
of Pentecost as a gift of God. Man had no claim upon 
God for that great gift; He was not poured out in 
answer to any prayer of man, nor on account of any 
rierit in man. He was, as was the gift of Jesus, a gift 
of grace which all received as from God. 

(ii) The pouring out of the Spirit at Pentecost was 
dependent upon the presence in heaven of Him Who 
was dead and is alive for evermore. Because of the 
work that He had wrought, in which satisfaction had 
been given to righteousness, God poured His Spirit upon 
man, for the initiation of a new movement and the usher- 
ing in of a new dispensation. 

(iii) Pentecost was the coming of God the Holy 


132 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Spirit to realize His own ideal in human character, by 
the administration of the work of Jesus, in its redemp- 
tive, possessive, and dominant aspects. It was the com- 
ing of God as Administrator, in order that the work 
which He had done as Saviour might become a real 
fact within the experience and the character of men of 
whom He should be able to obtain full possession, and 
in whom, therefore, He should be able to exercise abso- 
lute control. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus is henceforth 
to be Lord, while loyal subjects to His dominion are, by 
the indwelling of the Spirit, to pass into the realization 
of the will of God. The coming of the Holy Spirit was 
the dawn of the brightest day the world had seen since 
the Fall. It was for the actual impartation to his inner 
being of the power that should realize the purpose to- 
ward which man had been moving through every pre- 
vious dispensation. 

Pentecost affected the whole position of the disciples. 
In the moment when the Holy Spirit fell upon them, the 
company of apostles and disciples, about one hundred 
and twenty in number, were changed from being merely 
followers of the Messiah into members of the risen Lord. 
The Lord had exercised a purely Jewish Messiahship ; 
He had fulfilled all the prophecies and promises of the 
past in His own Person. He came unto His own’ is the 
word that characterizes His mission up to the Cross; 
and the Cross is the final emphasis of the other fact— 


1 John i. rr. 


PENTECOST ee RE 
that they thatwere His own received Him not. But out 
of that great nation, which as a nation thus rejected 
Him, there had been gathered an elect remnant, in suc- 
cession to that elect remnant which had always existed, 
even in the ages most characterized by spiritual deca- 
dence. Peter, James, John, and others to the number of 
about five hundred, were followers of Jesus, the Jewish 
Messiah ; and so they continued up to the Day of Pente- 
cost. When one hundred and twenty of these five hun- 
dred souls gathered in obedience to the parting com- 
mand of their Lord, they were still disciples of the Mes- 
siah—the little company of people who, amidst the dark- 
ness of the nation, had discovered the light of God 


and had been true to it. They were the people who, 


\ failing, trembling in the hour of darkness, had neverthe- 


less loved their Lord through all—the people who had 
been utterly amazed at the miracle of the Resurrection, 
and who were now waiting in obedience to the new 
voice of authority that had sounded in their ears, the 
voice of their risen Lord. These disciples of the Mes- 
siah were waiting for something differing entirely from 
the expectations of the past; but even now they did not 
clearly understand their position. 

When the Spirit came, they were born again. Hith- 
erto they had been followers of the Christ; and in the 
purpose of God, in company with faithful Abraham and 
all who preceded them in a life obedient to the measure 
of light received, were reckoned as sharers in the work 


134 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


of Christ. But, as an actual fact of life, it was only 
when the Spirit came—outpoured in baptismal flood, as 
the result of the work of Jesus upon the Cross—that 
these men began to live. They were then baptized in 
the Spirit, and filled-with the Spirit. © 

The result of Pentecost was, moreover, one that af- 
fected them not as individuals only, but also in their re- 
lation the one to the other. By that baptism they were 
united into one, and Peter, James, and John were no 
longer three separate individuals, standing apart from 
each other while holding the same broad sentiment, but 
they were members of the one catholic Church. In that 
moment when the Spirit fell upon the one hundred and 
twenty or more, the mystical Church of Christ was cre- 
ated.. Up to the moment of the coming of the Spirit, 
they were a concurrence of individuals, a company of 
units, having a bond of sympathy in their common love 
to Christ, but no actual, vital, necessary, eternal union. 
When the Spirit came, the concurrence of individuals 
was fused into a unity, the Church was formed. The 
catholic Church was created by the baptism of the Spirit. 
There was no Church in this sense until the Spirit 
came; and from then until now the Church has con- 
tinued. God alone knows the limits of His own 
Church. It to-day consists of those, in heaven and on 
earth, who have, by this self-same Spirit, been baptized 
into the sacred unity of the living Christ. It was when 
the Spirit fell, that individual disciples of Jesus were 


PENTECOST 135 


transformed from the former association with Him into 
actual living unity. The mystical Church was formed, 
by this fusion into a unity, of those who were baptized 
by the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. 

As the result of the great work of the Son of God, in 
life, death, resurrection, and ascension, there was poured 
upon a little company of men and women, who had 
chosen to suffer with Him, the great gift of the Holy 
Spirit. ° They were thus created a corporate unity, one 
with Christ and with each other, and there was brought 
into the world a new creation, the Church, consisting of 
Christ and all those thus united to Him. 

The coming of the Spirit and the fusing of these indi- 
viduals into one great whole affected the relation of the 
whole race to God. It was the coming into the world of 
anew temple—the Church. Ye are a temple of God’?— 
an individual truth, but a collective truth also. It was 
the coming into the world of that of which the old 
Temple, with its priesthood, its offerings, and its rit- 
ual, was prophetic; it was the building in the world of 
a dwelling-place of God through the Spirit. 


1A question arises as to what became of the rest of the five 
hundred disciples of Jesus who saw Him after His resurrection 
—RHe appeared to above five hundred brethren at once (1 Cor. xv. 
6)—but who did not tarry in obedience to His command in Jeru- 
salem. No definite statement can be made concerning them. It 
is certain, however, that they were not on the Day of Pentecost 
included in the Church, their disobedience preventing this. It is 
probable that, as the time passed on, many of them would become 
more fully instructed, and by submission would receive the gift. 
Nothing can be said with any certainty, as nothing has been re- 
vealed in Scripture. 71 Cor. iii. 16. 


136 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


The Temple was the place of praise, whence the song, 
the chant, and the hallelujah ascended perpetually into 
the presence of God. Man is created for the glory of 
God, and whoso offereth the sacrifice of thanksgiving 
glorifeth Me." It is the Divine intention that man 
should say, not only with his lip, but in every power of 
his nature, Hallelujah! First the Tabernacle, then the 
Temple, was given to man as a place of praise. 

But the Temple meant more than praise; it meant a 
possibility of prayer. Js it not written, My house shall 
be called a house of prayer for all the nations? ? It was 
a point to which humanity might come and tell its agony 
in the listening ear of Heaven, a place where men might 
pray. Men are, first, to praise; but praise must oft- 
times cease, choked by the sob of sorrow; then let men 
pray. 

Beyond that, the Temple was the place of prophetic 
utterance—prophecy being, in its largest meaning, a 
Divine answer to prayer. Prayer is the voice of man 
in his need speaking to God: prophecy is the voice of 
God in His power speaking to man. These things had 
been symbolized in the Temple. 

Now those men and women in the upper room—being 
no longer simply a company, but Christ’s Church—form 
a Divine institution of praise. Through them there is 
to ascend from the earth to heaven the praise of men. 
The outsiders will join the praise as they enter the 


© Ps. 1.23.) '* Mark (xi-'17. 


PENTECOST ASE 


Church ; they will find the opportunity of praise as they 
come into the new Temple of God given to man. 

That company of people, having now become one 
Church, is also a medium of prayer. They are a king- 
dom of priests: that is, a company of individuals who 
will unite prayer to prayer and intercession to interces- 
sion; a company of men and women who will carry on 
their hearts the surging sorrow of the earth, and will 
pour its tale out in the listening ear of Heaven; a com- 
pany of men and women who will always be conscious 
of the suffering of humanity, and will tell it out to God. 
The multitudes outside will begin to pray as they enter 
the Church. Their prayer will become prevailing as 
they join the new medium of prayer, which is the new 
Temple, the Church of Jesus Christ. 

The Church will not only praise and pray,—all its 
members have become prophets. They will pass from 
the upper room, and scatter themselves over the whole 
earth, reaching out into all the places where men abide. 
They will not be divided; they will still be the Church. 
The sigh of Moses long ago, Would God that all the 
Lord’s people were prophets! finds its answer in the 
Pentecostal effusion and the bestowment of the pro- 
phetic gift upon the living members of the new Church. 
Before one hundred years had passed, every known na- 
tion and all human institutions had felt the touch of the 
new power by the prophesying of the Church. 


41Num. xi. 29. 


138 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


A new Temple was given to men upon the Day of 
Pentecost—that is, a new centre of praise, a new power 
of prayer, and a new power of prophecy. No longer is 
Jerusalem the place where men ought to worship; + no 
longer is this mountain, as Christ characterized the Sa- 
maritan centre, the only place; but everywhere men may 
worship God. Christ is the Door of the Church; and 
men through belief in Him pass thereinto, the Spirit 
baptizing them into living union with Him. The Tem- 
ple grows and expands by this incorporation of individ- 
ual members. Whether in a far-off land or at home, 
whether in Jerusalem or at the end of the earth, men 
pass into the new Temple by this self-same Spirit Who 
was poured out upon the day of Pentecost for their ad- 
mission into the relationship with God which should fit 
them for praise, prayer, and prophecy. When Peter 
handled the keys of the kingdom for the first time, he 
opened the door to the Jew, and three thousand entered. 
Then he opened the door to the Gentiles in the house of 
Cornelius, and the Gentiles began to crowd in. That 
handling of the keys was not Peter’s peculiar preroga- 
tive. It was also the prerogative of every member of the 
Church. It is the prerogative of every person who, as a 
prophet of the Cross, in the demonstration of the Spirit, 
speaks to somesoul, so that thereopens before that soul 
a vision of the things of the kingdom. That is the true 
exercise of thepower of the keys.” Pentecost meant for 


1John iv. 20. ? This throws light upon the sacerdotal question. 
With a strange confusion men have imagined that the keys were 


PENTECOST £39 


the world the creation of a new Temple, no longer limi- 
ted, localized, and material, but unlimited, to be found 
everywhere, and spiritual, for the Spirit is everywhere. . 
Entrance to this Temple is found wherever man in his 
need and agony submits himself to Christ. 

Before closing this chapter, it is necessary to notice 
the difference between the events of the Day of Pente- 
cost with the period immediately following, and the oc- 
currence in the house of Cornelius with the subsequent 
history of the Book of the Acts. The whele of the men 
and women upon whom the Spirit fell on the Day of 
Pentecost were Jewish; and the period immediately fol- 
lowing Pentecost may be spoken of as peculiarly Jewish. 
There are two remarkable characteristics of the work 
of the Spirit during that period that ceased immediately 
afterwards. This period is dealt with in the first nine 
chapters, and during it there seems to have been an in- 
terval between the acceptation of the good tidings con- 
cerning the kingdom of God and the reception of the 
Holy Spirit. People believed the tidings, and yet they 
did not receive the Holy Spirit. Moreover, there was 
some intervention on the part of another disciple before 
the gift of the Spirit was received.t © 

The Gospel was preached to the Gentiles in the house 
of Cornelius,? and it is never again recorded that those 
who believed in Jesus received the Holy Spirit as a sub- 


the symbols of priestly power. They were not. They were the 
insignia of the prophetic office. 

1The work of Philip in Samaria and the conversion of Saul 
are instances. They will be considered in Chapter XV. ?Acts x. 


140 THE,SPIRIT ' OF GOD 


 Sequent biessing. The apostles preached the kingdom 
of God; and when a Jew heard about the kingdom, he 
did exactly what had been done in the days of Christ’s 
ministry—he thought of earthly power, had no concep- 
tion of the spiritual reality, and believed in Jesus as a 
Restorer of the temporal kingdom. His conception was 
material; and in every such case it was necessary for 
some more enlightened disciple to teach him the spiritual 
reality, in order that he might receive the Holy 
Spirit. 

When Peter preached in the house of Cornelius, he 
announced good tidings of peace, and the lordship of 
Jesus, and remission of sins. This the Gentiles heard, 
not from the Jewish standpoint. The story of the king- 
dom was not all. They heard also the story of salvation 
from sin. When they believed, it was the whole Gospel, 
and the Spirit fell upon them straightway. There was 
no second blessing. This, then, represents the normal 
condition of things under the present dispensation. 
Men believe in Jesus as King and Saviour, and are bap- 
tized by the Spirit into relationship with Him, that being 
the hour of their new birth, and that in which they be- 
come members of the catholic Church of Jesus Christ. 

Pentecost, in the economy of God, was the occasion 
of the outpouring of the Spirit; in answer to the com- 
pleted work of the Christ, in order that the purpose of 
God might be realized in the character of men. 

Pentecost, in the case of the disciple, was the change 


PENTECOST 141 


from being merely a follower, a learner, into that of liv- 
ing union with the living Christ : 

Pentecost, in the case of the world, was the advent in / 
the world of a new Temple consisting of living men, 
women, and children indwelt by the Spirit of God, for 
purposes of praise, and prayer, and prophecy. 


XITI 
THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH 


oy the Day of Pentecost the coming of the Spirit 

upon a company of waiting disciples changed 
them from an aggregation of units into one corporate 
whole, the Church of the living God. From that mo- 
ment all the essentials of the Church have been main- 
tained by His abiding therein. 

By the creation of the Church a new Temple was 
given to the world, a new institute for praise, for prayer, 
and for prophecy. All these functions are fulfilled by 
the abiding of the Spirit in the Church. The incense of 
praise is offered by the inspiration of the Spirit; the 
intercession of prayer is maintained by the whole com- 
pany of those who pray in the Holy Spirit ; the work of 
prophecy, in its fullest meaning of forth-telling, is car- 
ried forward by such as are witnesses, in co-operation 
with the Holy Spirit, to the eternal verities of God. 

The Letters to the Corinthians deal with New Testa- 
ment Church orders; and in the first, the apostle having 
discussed certain disorders that had arisen in the church 

142 


See ag el alle 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH 143 


at Corinth, proceeded to deal with ecclesiastical matters ; 


and, in conclusion, he revealed a threefold fact concern- _ 
ing the relation of the Spirit to the whole Church of — 


God. Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren. Both 
in the Authorized and in the Revised Versions the word 
gifts is in italics. The term zvevyarikd? covers a 
subject far wider than that of the gifts of the Spirit. It 
is undoubtedly with the gifts that the apostle specially 
dealt ; but he opened his subject by writing: Brethren, 
I would not have you ignorant concerning the matters 
that pertain to the Spirit. Then he made three main 
statements concerning these matters. First, he declared 
the Holy Spirit to be the Defender of the Church’s faith : 
No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.* 
In the second place, he declared the Holy Spirit to be the 
Inspiration of the Church’s service: There are diversi- 
ties of gifts, but the same Spirit... . But all these 
worketh the one and the same Spirit, dividing to each 
one severally even as He will.* And, thirdly, he de- 
clared the Holy Spirit to be the bond of the Church’s 
unity: For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one 
body.°* 

The Holy Spirit is the Defender of the Faith. No 
man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit... The 
old desire for authority in matters of faith and of doc- 
trine is still felt, and is perfectly natural and right. It 


ty Cor. xii. 1. %avevsatiK@yv, Things of the Spirit, 1 Cor. 
Mitt Gor, xi, 3:. “rT Cora xin (apne, eo 3: Cory xi. 13) 
Ss Cor, Xt: 3. 


144 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


has ever been realized in the history of the Church. It 
may safely be said that all great crises in Church his- 
tory have been the result of a division of opinion as to 
where the seat of authority really lies in matters of dis- 
cipline and of doctrine. 

The Reformation under Luther was a restoration of 
the lost doctrine of Tustification by Faith; but that, in a 
further analysis, is a statement of the seat of authority in 
the matter of forgiveness and of pardon. In that won- 
derful work which Luther was raised up of God to do, 
he called men back from seeking authoritative absolu- 
tion from a man, to seek it from God. 


The Oxford movement, the outworking of which in 


the sacerdotal revival to-day is so manifest, is a startling 
illustration of this fact. Newman—sweet, strong, 
sainted soul, from whom those who believe in the alone 
and undelegated authority of the Spirit radically differ 
in many particulars, but with whom all saints have com- 
munion still in his love for the Master—entered the Ro- 
man church because he sought for authority, and his in- 
tellect found a species of rest in what he believed to be 
the authority of that church. 

Protestants are perpetually being told that they have 
no centre of authority. This statement is due to the 
fact that those who make it forget that the one, the 
abiding, and the only centre of authority, in matters of 
faith and doctrine, is the Holy Spirit. That is the 
teaching of this declaration, passed over too often as 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH 145 


though it were simply a statement of initial matters. 
That it certainly is; but it is infinitely more. That Jesus — 
is Lord is the centre of all Christian doctrine; every- 
thing else grows out of it. No man can say, Jesus is 
Lord, but in the Holy Spirit. All true systems of the- 
ology are but the subdivision and application to varied 
and varying circumstances of this central fact, that Jesus 
is Lord. 

The same apostle stated: For to this end Christ died, 
and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead 
and the living. The Lordship of Christ is the doctrinal 
fact which is the centre of all others; the Lordship of 
Christ is the practical fact which is the issue of the doc- 
trine. Doctrine and duty are wedded in the scheme of 
Christianity. Every doctrine has its expression in some 
duty ; all creed has its out-blossoming in character. 

The inner historic fact of Christianity is Christ, living, 
dying, rising, reigning; and the purpose of His living, 
dying, rising, and reigning is that He should be Lord 
both of the dead and of the living. The relation which 
the ministry of the Holy Spirit bears to that doctrine is 
of the closest. No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in 
the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit Who first reveals 
Christ to the heart of man, so that man says, in response 
to the revelation: Thou art my Lord. It is the work of 
the Spirit to take this inner, central part of Christian 
doctrine, and make it real to men, so that they respond 


Ag Cor. xii..3.. 2. Rom. xiv. 9. 


146 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


to the doctrine by fulfilling the duty. That initial work 
having been done, it is the Spirit Who unfolds the reve- 
lation step by step,—precept upon precept; . . . —line 
upon line; here a little, there a little,*-—by so much as 
men are able to bear it, giving new vision of the beauty 
and glory of the Master, for life and character. Every 
vision of Christ granted to the believer has been the re- 
sult of the presence in that believer of the Holy Spirit, 
Who alone gives grace to say in new realms of life, in 
new vistas of outlook, that Jesus is Lord. 

Thus, whether the look is backward upon the past of 
sin, He is Lord, and has blotted out the bond written in 
ordinances that was against us;* or whether it is at the 
present condition of our hearts, He is Lord, and will 
have dominion over the nature until the Divine purpose 
be realized; or whether it is forward to the end of life, 
He is still Lord, and fills the horizon, so that souls, 
homed in His kingdom, wait for His coming; or wheth- 
er it is round upon the world, He even there is Lord, and 
Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 


And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of 
the suns,— 


widened—slowly but surely, nevertheless—to a concep- 
tion of the Lordship of the Son of God. 

The Holy Spirit is the one and only Defender of this 
Faith; and every fight for orthodoxy other than that 


which is aimed at bringing men to fulness of spiritual 


4Jsa. xxviii. 10.°>.? Col. ‘ii. 14. 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH 147 


life is futile. Life in the Holy Spirit is the safeguard 
of purity of doctrine. 

In order to emphasize this fact, consider three great 
landmarks in the history of the Church—the Reforma- 
tion, the Evangelical revival, and the spiritual move- 
ments of to-day. 

The declension that led to the Reformation, and the 
Reformation itself, are proofs of the fact that purity of 
doctrine is only maintained by the Holy Spirit. The 
Reformation was necessary that the truth of Justifica- 
tion by faith should be restated, because the Church had 
wandered from spiritual to material conceptions, and the 
Holy Spirit had been slighted and contemned. To bor- 
row the figure of the old Hebrew prophet, men had gone 
to Egypt for horses upon which to fight God’s battles ; 
they had asked and obtained the patronage of the State 
in matters religious. Constantine had become the pa- 
tron of Christianity ; the Holy Spirit had been dethroned 
from His proper position. The result was the material- 
izing of religious thought and character, until men had 
lost the doctrine of Justification by Faith, because they 
had lost their loyalty to the Holy Spirit. The doctrine 
was restored through a man to whom the Spirit gave a 
new vision of the lost truth. Luther declared the doc- 
trine in the face of the world; the Spirit spoke through 
him; the eyes of men were opened, and there was a re- 
turn to the Christian doctrine, because there was a re- 


turn to the Holy Spirit. 


148 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


The Evangelical revival illustrates the same thing. 
This was made necessary by the fact that the Church of 
God had lost its vision of the truth of Sanctification. 
John Wesley said that he had been raised up in order 
that he might promote Holiness throughout the land; 
and he declared at the beginning of that movement that 
if he could find one hundred men who feared nothing 
but sin he would move the world. God gave him his 
~ hundred men, and he did move the world. He revolu- 
tionized the thought of this country, so that to-day the 
spiritual results of the Methodist movement are not 
measured by the number of its adherents, but by the 
ever-increasing understanding of the doctrine of Holli- 
ness in all the Churches. John Wesley did not discover 
some new doctrine, save as a man may discover that 
which has been hidden; it was the old apostolic truth 
that he brought to light. It had been lost, because the 
Holy Spirit had neither been acknowledged as a Person 
nor recognized as the Centre of authority in Church life. 
This land had passed under the deadly blight of material 
conceptions of Christianity. / The fox-hunting parson, 
who cared neither for God, man, nor devil, but only for 
tithes and hounds, was the representative of Christianity 
who cursed the times. ) He was dismissed by the return 
of men through John Wesley and his holy club at Ox- 
ford to the truth of the sanctification of the believer 
through the submission of human lives to the govern- 
ment of the Spirit. To borrow Dr. Steele’s phrase, the 


THE SPIRIT IN THE CHURCH 149 


Conservator of orthodoxy in every successive age is the 
Holy Spirit. 

Creeds do not ensure orthodoxy, for no individual 
church holds all the truth of the Church. The great 
body of truth is the property of the catholic Church, not 
of any section, nor yet of any individual member thereof. 
Sometimes one is asked if he hold the truth. Certainly 
not, for no single person can hold the truth. He may 
see one side of it—and that one side is almost more than 
he can bear—while another person sees another side. 
One is not to be angry with the other because neither 
sees all the facets of the lustrous gem, nor is the other 
to decline to work with the one because both do not 
alike include in their understanding all the angles there- 
of. To this man is given a vision of the individual ap- 
plication of the work of Christ; to another, the vision 
of its social application; to yet another, that of the 
national and international application. And the man 
who sees the individual aspect of that work has no right 
to anathematize the man who only sees the national as- 
pect. One man feels that there is laid upon his heart 
the great message of a Christian doctrine and a living 
Christ to the nations ; and he so feels the impulse of that 
upon him, that he must give up his work with indi- 
viduals, and appeal, as much as one voice may, to the 
nation, from the floor of some legislative chamber. It 
cannot be said that such a man is not doing God’s work. 


'Daniel Steele, D.D., author of Milestone Papers, etc. 


159° THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


A man is not necessarily fulfilling the final and only 
work of the ministry when he is in the pulpit. Stepping 


from the pulpit and from the work of dealing with indi-_ 


vidual men about conversion and spiritual upbuilding 
would be to some a degradation of life. But if another 
man has another outlook, and would speak to masses of 
men, and to nations of the earth, about the way in which 
Christ would have society conducted and nations order 
their government, the preacher in his pulpit has no right 
to despise that man. Nay, to one is given one vision of 
Christ, and to another yet another ; but no man holds all 
the truth, as no man has all the gifts. 

In the catholic Church, by the Spirit, is contained the 
whole truth; and in the catholic Church, by the Spirit, 
is contained all the gifts necessary for the declaration 
thereof. The catholic Church, inspired by the Spirit, 
indwelt by the Spirit, is a divine institution infinitely 
larger than human sight can compass, human statistics 
declare, or human understanding perfectly compre- 
hend. 

Life in the Spirit is necessarily, therefore, the in- 
spiration of, and the equipment for service. Attempts 
may be made to organize and apportion to every man his 
work, giving to one the individual, to another the social, 
and to a third the national work; and subdividing these 
things, it may be planned that this man shall preach the 
gospel of forgiveness, that man the gospel of holiness, 
and another the gospel of the coming Christ. For the 
orderly execution of these matters there may be dis- 


THE SPIRIT INCTHE, CHURCH I5t 


tinctions, and degrees, and seasons, and symbols. The 
Spirit of God cannot, however, be crowded into small 
human channels and ideas. What absolute folly is evi- 
denced by all such attempts! The catholic Church is 
not bounded by loose ropes of sand, it is not maintained 
in order by small definitions, but by the Spirit, Who is 
the Conservator of its orthodoxy and the Inspiration of 
its service. He gives His gifts severally as He will; 
and not along such restricted lines of communication as 
the laying on of hands, but through the broad river of 
_ His indwelling of the Church, come the gifts as well as 
the graces of God. 

If the Spirit be the Defender of the Church’s faith 
and the Inspiration of the Church’s service, He is also 
the Bond of the Church’s unity. In one Spirit were we 
all baptized into one body. The Door of the Church is ' 
Jesus Christ; and reverently the figure may be carried 
further—the Holy Spirit guards the Door. From that ° 
Pentecostal effusion to this hour, the Holy Spirit has 
guarded the entrance to the Church of Christ, and ad- 
mitted all its members by His own baptism. Men and 
women have ever passed into the catholic Church by the 
one Door, and entrance has ever been by the baptism of 
the Holy Spirit, apart from which it is impossible for 
any soul to come into living union with Christ, the 
Head of the Church. Consequently, the whole com- 
pany of those who are in the Church are energized and 
impulsed by the same Spirit. There is one body and 


41) Cor.) mi. 13. 


152 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


one Spirit—one body, as the human body is one, having 
different members, each with its own function, but only 
one life. The hand has not a separate existence from 
the foot, but each has the one life; so, in the catholic 
Church, there are many members having varying func- 
tions, but all are impulsed by the one life. 

The Holy Spirit is the life of the catholic Church, and 
in that life lies the great bond of its union. The 
Church is one and undivided. To all outward seeming 
it is divided, and each division arrogates to itself the 
name of the Church, until at last one most carefully sep- 
arated division declares that all the rest are systems and 
sects, and it alone gives outward revelation of what the 
true Church is. 

The fact is that men do not know the bounds of the 
catholic Church, which is smaller than the records of 
the churches show, and is yet greater than them all. 
There are living members of that Church in all the 
churches, and it may be that on the rolls of the churches 
are names which are not on the roll of the catholic 
Church. Those are members thereof who are baptized 
into union with Christ by the Holy Spirit. The Lord 
knows them; and being members of His one Church, 
they can sing the words of Baring-Gould’s hymn in a 
far higher sense than some people imagine :— 

We are not divided; 
All one body we, 


One in hope and doctrine, 
One in charity. 


Sigian ket ain yy ’ m 
eS Se a ny 


Se ean oh agai 


2 aR IE eS 


THE SPIRE INTTRE CHURCH 153 


It may be objected that the Church is not one in doc- 
trine. The catholic Church is one in doctrine, and this 
is its central word: Jesus is Lord. Whether men ex- 
press that truth to swing of censer and swell of music, or 
to the beat of the drum and the blare of the trumpet, or 
without any of these accompaniments, matters far less 
than is imagined. 

The life of the Church came, not by the will of man, 
nor by a ceremony of human invention, but by the bap- 
tism of the Spirit; and the great unity of that Church is 
still maintained by the indwelling of all its members by 
the Holy Spirit. The true consciousness of this unity 
of the Spirit, is the love concerning which Paul wrote, 
and which finds its manifestation toward the unit and 
the aggregate of units which make up the whole. The 
unity of the Church can only be realized in full spiritual 
life. Acts of Uniformity cannot make the Church one: 
that is the original and continuous work of the Spirit. 
Of that one great Church of Christ some of its members 
are at home with the Lord, some are passing through 
the earth, and some are coming up out of to-morrow; 
and the Spirit is the Keeper of the unity, which cannot 
be broken. Presently out of all the seeming disagree- 
ment and disruption will come the glorious Church of 
the First-born, without spot or wrinkle or any such 
thing. , 


XIV 
THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 


HE ministry of the Spirit in the present age is by 
no means confined within the limits of the Church. 
Scripture very clearly reveals the intention as being far 
wider; and the history of the centuries proves the ac- 
complishment to be in keeping with the intention. 
There are three portions of Scripture which may be 
examined as throwing light on this subject. First, a 
prophetic utterance, the fulfilment of which Peter 
claimed as being accomplished on the Day of Pentecost; 
secondly,the express declaration of the Lord concerning 
the Spirit’s ministry in the world; and, lastly, the teach- 
ing of Paul and John concerning the work of the Holy 
Spirit as opposed to the work of the spirit of evil. All 
these deal with a present ministry of the Spirit which in 
some sense is united to the work of the Church, but is 
also apart from and beyond it. 
First, the prophecy: These are not drunken, as ye 
suppose; seeing it is but the third hour of the day; but 
this is that which hath been spoken by the prophet Joel ;* 


1 Acts ii. 15-18. 
154 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 155 


And it shall be in the last days, saith God, 

I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh: 

And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, 

And your young men shall see visions, 

And your old men shall dream dreams: 

Yea and on My servants and on My handmadens in 

those days } 

Will I pour forth of My Spirit; and they shall 

prophesy. 

The term all flesh is an expression which is uniformly 
used in the Old Testament Scriptures with reference to 
the whole race. The exceptions are to be found repeat- 
edly in the Pentateuch and once in the Book of Daniel,” 
where the expression all flesh refers not only to the hu- 
man race but to everything having life. The sense of 
the phrase cannot be narrowed to anything smaller than 
the whole human family; and the statement here is clear 
and distinct—the utterance of the prophet long years 
before Pentecost, and the utterance of the apostle on the 
Day of Pentecost, claiming the fulfilment of the old 
prophecy, that the Spirit should be poured upon all 
flesh. 

The link between the prophecy and its fulfilment is 
revealed in the Gospel of John: In the beginning was 
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word 
qas God. ... And the Word became flesh, and dwelt 
among us." The eternal Word took upon Him a nature 


2 Dany iv) 42.)04 John: ist, 24. 


156 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


common to the race, and therein wrought righteousness 
and accomplished redemption. Consequently, when He 
ascended on high to receive gifts for men, He received 
the Spirit, and by His outpouring upon disciples, the 
Church was formed. The Pentecostal effusion had, 
however, another and far wider significance. The Spirit 
was poured upon all flesh, so that the whole human race 
was thereby brought into a new relationship with Him 
as the result of the work of Jesus Christ. Just as the 
Word took the common flesh of humanity, and asso- 
ciated Himself with the whole race; so, as the result of 
the work He did while thus associated, the Spirit was 
poured not merely upon the company of disciples, but — 
also upon all flesh. This is the larger outlook upon the 
mission of the Spirit. Let there be no minimizing of 
the value of this great statement. 

There is, however, a distinct difference between the 
relationship that the Spirit bears to the believer and to 
the unbeliever. The Spirit is in the believer, and he by 
that indwelling is kept in union with Christ. The 
Spirit strives with the unbeliever as a Spirit of convic- 
tion, of reasoning, wooing him in patience to the way of 
God. The difference is most marked, yet the ministry of 
the Spirit is a ministry which touches all men. 

Secondly, the declaration of Christ in the Paschal dis- 
courses: And He, when He is come, will convict the 
world in respect of sim, and of righteousness, and of 
judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me; of 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 154 


righteousness, because I go to the Father, and ye behold 
Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this — 
world hath been judged.* This is the first aspect of the 
ministry of =2= Spirit among men. He came not merely 
to reveal the things of Christ to the Church, but to con- 
vict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of jud gment. 
In the Authorized Version the word convict is rendered 
reprove, It is a word the inner thought of which is not 
revealed by the translation convict. Bishop Westcott, 
in his luminous exposition of the Gospel of John, says 
that this word has in it four shades of meaning: first, 
an authoritative examination of the facts; secondly, 
unquestionable proof; thirdly, decisive judgment; and, 
lastly, punitive power. 

The mission of the Holy Spirit with men is that of 
revealing to them the truth on these subjects, in such a 
way that they shall be convinced that it is the truth. 
Concerning sin, men seek to excuse themselves, try to 
evade the facts; but when the Spirit deals with a man 
about sin, he cannot escape; and under His illumination 
man has the same clear vision of righteousness and 
judgment. 

Passing from the word itself to the subject, He... 
will convict the world im respect of sin, and of right- 
eousness, and of judgment,’ it is clear that these three 
words cover the past, the present, and the future of the 
outlook of man as a sinner—the history of past sin, the 


2John xvi. 8-11. ?John xvi. 8. 


158 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


present demand for righteousness, and the fear of future 
judgment. The Spirit takes these three cardinal facts, 
and places them in their true light, so that men may 
make no mistake concerning them. The Master de- 
clared the testimony the Spirit would bear on these sub- 
jects. ... Of sin, because they believe not on Me; of 
righteousness, because I go to the Father,and ye behold 
Me no more; of judgment, because the prince of this 
world hath been judged.1_ That is the threefold revela- 
tion which the Spirit is giving to the world to-day, and 
it demands a closer examination. 

Three persons are spoken of: Man, Christ, and Satan 
—Man in the realm of sin, Christ in the realm of 
righteousness, Satan in the realm of judgment. Ob- 
serve next the inter-relation of these three: Man in his 
relationship to himself, to Christ, and to Satan; Christ 
in His relationship to Himself, to man, and to Satan; 
Satan in his relationship to himself, to man, and to 
Christ. 

First, Man in his relationship to the three. Man’s 
relationship to himself is that of a sinner having lost 
his life, whose sin ceases and is put away when he be- 
lieves in Jesus. Man’s relationship to Christ is that of a 
sinner for whom He has procured salvation, and 
through Whose triumph of righteousness man may him- 
self do righteously. Man’s relationship to Satan is that 
of a slave under the prince of this world, but from 


1John xvi. 9-11. 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 159 


whose power he is set free, for this prince has been de- 
feated. 

Secondly, Christ in His relationship to the three. 
Christ’s relationship to Himself is that of righteousness, 
for He declared His personal triumph when He said: 
I go to the “*zther.1 His relationship to man is that of 
a Saviour, and therefore. man’s sin consists in refusal 
to believe on Him. Christ’s relationship to Satan is 
th t of Conqueror, for the prince of this world hath been 
judged.” 

Lastly, Satan in his relation to the three. Satan, con- 
cerning himself, is conquered—hath been judged—and 
is powerless; concerning man, is conquered—hath been 
judged—and therefore can no longer claim man’s serv- 
ice; concerning Christ, is conquered—hath been judged 
—and therefore even he must own Him King. There is 
no other outlook for evil than that of conquest. 

Once again: He, when He is come, will convict the 
world in respect of sin. . . because they believe not on 
Me. With the coming of the Spirit upon all flesh, sin 
had a new centre. Henceforth sin consists in the refusal 
to accept the Divine provision of healing and power. 
No longer is the root-sin that of impurity, or drunken- 
ness, or lust, or pride, or even law-breaking; the root- 
sin is the refusal to believe on Jesus. If men will believe 
on Him, in that relationship to Christ which springs 
from belief, is to be found healing for wounds, aad 


/*John xvi. 17. * John xvi. 11. | * John: xvi; 8) ‘9. 


160 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


strength which issues in victory. The Spirit declares 
that the sin lies, not in the fact of passion, but in the 
refusal to let the Master master the passion. 

The Spirit has also come to reveal the truth about 
righteousness. If the revelation of sin be that of a new 
centre, the revelation of righteousness is, consequently, 
that of a new possibility. Of righteousness, because I 
go to the Father.’ In the height of that glory, which 
mortal eyes may by no means look upon, is God’s perfect 
Man, the One Who said, J go to the Father. Not sim- 
ply by virtue of His own righteousness did He go, but 
bearing into the presence of the Father the marks of 
that death on the Cross, by which He liberated His life, 
that it might become the force of renewal for man. The 
Spirit comes to bring to men the gospel of a new possi- 
bility of righteousness. 

Lastly, the Spirit’s revelation of judgment is con- 
cerned with a new exercise thereof. A common mis- 
take, in quoting this passage, is that of adding the words 
to come after judgment. ‘The confusion of thought 
which this reveals is obvious; for the judgment here re- 
ferred to is not that which is to come, but that which 
is already accomplished. The Judgment Day is not to 
be one of twenty-four hours, but of long duration, an 
age in itself, of which the closing event will be the final 
assize before the Great White Throne. That stupen- 
dous transaction will simply be the unfolding of the facts 


1John xvi. 10. 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 161 


which are present to-day, because the prince of this 
world hath been judged. Righteousness has had its 
conflict with evil, and has won in the fight. The head 
of the enemy of the race has been bruised, even though 
the heel of the Victor was wounded in the process. The 
prince of this world hath been judged; and the things 
that must pass and perish are evil things and un- 
righteous things, while the things that cannot be shaken 
and that will remain are righteous things, pure things, 
and beautiful things, yea, all the things of God. Judg- 
ment is fixed, doom is marked, destiny is sealed, by the 
Cross of Jesus Christ. If men fling in their lot with 
things which are doomed and judged, then they must 
share the doom and judgment which have been passed 
upon them by the Cross of Calvary; but if they turn 
their backs upon doomed things, and lift their eyes to- 
ward the things that abide, the heavenly things where 
Christ is, the upper things, the conquering things, then 
for them judgment was borne upon the Cross, and they 
have entered into justification-life. Thus the ministry \ 
of the Spirit in the world to-day is that of revealing the | 
truth concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. 
Thirdly, the teaching of Paul and John is clear that 
the Spirit has yet another ministry in the world to-day— 
that, namely, of hindering the full manifestation of sin. 
Paul and John in their Epistles give testimony to the 
fact that the Holy Spirit is the ever-present Force de- 
nying, hindering, thwarting, the outworking of evil. 


162 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


This is clearly revealed by comparison of certain of their 
writings. 

... Lhe man of sin. . . the son of perdition, he that 
opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called 
God or that is worshipped; so that he sitteth in the tem- 
ple of God, setting himself forth as God.1 That is a 
description of antichrist as he will be. The mystery of 
lawlessness doth already work. . . . And then shall be 
revealed the lawless one.* The apostle thus states that 
there is a mystery of iniquity, a mystery of lawlessness, 
at work among men, and that there is a day 
coming when that mystery will have a manifestation in 
an actual person, the lawless one will be revealed. 

John, writing on this same theme, says: Who is the 
liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? This 
ts the antichrist, even he that denieth the Father and the 
Son.*—Every spirit which confesseth not Jesus is not of 
God: and this is the spirit of the antichrist, whereof ‘ye 
have heard that it cometh; and now it is in the world 
already.* This is practically the same teaching—namely, 
that there is a spirit of antichrist, a spirit of the mys- 
tery of lawlessness, in the world, and that at some period 
in the future it is to have a manifestation in a person. 
It is the spirit which denies God, not necessarily with 
the blatant blasphemy of public speech, but it may be 
with all cultured correctness of life. It is that which 
denies God, that which denies Christ. 


72 Thess. ii. 3, 4. 22 Thess. ii. 7, 8. *1 John ii. 22. ‘John 
ha 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 163 


Paul distinctly states that there is another force which 
holds this force of evil in check: And now ye know 
that which restraineth.. . . The mystery of lawlessness 
doth already work: only there is One that restraineth 
now, until He be taken out of the way. This is a plain 
declaration that the spirit of evil is at work, and also 
that there is a Force which restrains. He does not say 
it is the Holy Spirit. There has been a great deal of 
controversy about this particular passage, and attempts 
have been made to show that it had regard to the Roman 
power in the past. John, however, makes it clear Who 
the One that restraineth is: Hereby know ye the 
spirit of God: every spirit which confesseth that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh is of God: and every spirit 
which confesseth not Jesus is not of God: and this 1s the 
spirit of the antichrist.2, Here the two things are placed 
in opposition,—the spirit of antichrist, which denies 
Jesus Christ and denies God; the Spirit of God, Who 
announces the Christ of God, and teaches men how to 
call Him Lord. 

These two forces are still at work in the world,—the 
spirit of evil, the leaven that is undoing men every- 
where; and the Spirit of God, Who restrains and holds 
in check the force of evil. 

All the great forces which are antagonistic to God 
have been thus hindered, restrained, checked, flung 
back upon themselves during the last nineteen hundred 
years. 


Ae PT hess..11. 6; 7... -2 pobtm Iva) 2013. 


164 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


The ministry of the Spirit is larger than His min- 
istry in the Church; it is world-wide, and is always 
based upon the work of the Christ. Whether to the 
Church or to the world, the Spirit has no message but 
the message of Jesus Christ. To the man in the Church, 
and to the whole Church, He is revealing the Christ 
in new, beauty and new glory. To the world He is re- 
vealing sin, righteousness, and judgment in their rela- 
tion to the Christ. The Spirit is poured upon all flesh; 
and, in co-operation with the Church, He convinces of 
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Therein 
lie the heart, the centre, and the responsibility of foreign 
missionary work. How shall they hear without a 
preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be 
sent?* The Holy Spirit is waiting in the far-distant 
places of the earth for the voice of anointed man to 
preach, in order that through that instrumentality He 
may carry on His work of convicting of sin, and of 
righteousness, and of judgment. 

Beyond that, there is this other marvellous ministry 
which is too often lost sight of. By His presence in the 
world He is restraining the out-working of iniquity, and 
is checking, hindering, and driving back every attempted 
combination of the forces of evil for the swamping of 
the Church, and the hindering of the kingdom. The 
Spirit’s restraining work will go forward until the mo- 
ment has come when the number of the elect is complete. 


URom.! X44, 78, 


THE SPIRIT IN THE WORLD 165 


Then shall the Spirit be withdrawn when the Church is 
called away, in order that iniquity may be manifested 
and smitten to its final doom, and the glorious kingdom 
of our God be set up.? 


1The only sense in which the Spirit is withdrawn is that 
which characterizes His special work in this age—that, namely, 
of conserving the Church and preventing the progress of evil to 
finality. He will carry on His work of striving with men as He 
did prior to the Deluge, but with results more glorious, This, 
however, is another subject and a part of prophetic study. 


BOOK VI 
THE SPIRIT IN THE INDIVIDUAL 


167 


Thou Breath from still eternity, 
Breathe o'er my spirit’s barren land— 
The pine-tree and the myrtle-tree 
Shall spring amidst the desert sand, 
And where Thy living water flows 
The waste shall blossom as the rose. 


May I in will and deed and word 
Obey Thee as a little child; 

And keep me in Thy love, my Lord, 
For ever holy, undefiled ; 

Within me teach and strive and pray, 

Lest I should choose my own wild way. 


O Spirit, Stream that by the Son 
Is open’d to us crystal pure, 
Forth-flowing from the heavenly Throne 
To waiting hearts and spirits poor, 
Athirst and weary do I sink 
Beside Thy waters, there to drink. 


My spirit turns to Thee and clings, 
All else forsaking, unto Thee, 
Forgetting all created things, 
Remembering only God in me. 
O living Stream, O gracious Rain, 
None wait for Thee, and wait in vain. 
G. TERSTEEGEN. 


168 


XV. 
THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 


N dealing with these matters of the Spirit, it is wise 
to keep, as far as possible, to the terms of the New 
Testament; and it would be an enormous gain if they 


were used only as they are used in Scripture. The term — 


the baptism of the Spirit has been very generally mis- 
understood, and therefore misapplied. It has been used 
as though it were synonymous with the filling of the 
Spirit; and, consequently, some persons speak of the 
baptism of the Spirit as a second blessing. They teach 
that it is necessary to ask for, and to wait for, and to ex- 
pect this baptism of the Spirit, as something different 
from and beyond conversion. That is a view utterly 
unauthorized by Scripture. The baptism of the Spirit 
is the primary blessing; it is, in short, the blessing of 
regeneration. When a man is baptized with the Spirit, 
he is born again. There is, however, an essential dif- 
ference between that initial blessing and the blessing into 
which thousands of God’s people have been entering 
during recent years—the difference between the ea 
tism of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit. 
169 


< 


179 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


In the majority of cases in the experience of believers, 
the filling of the Spirit is realized after the baptism. 
They are identical in the purpose of God, but there is a 
difference in the experience. So important is it that 
Christian people should have a clear understanding of 
what the baptism of the Spirit really is, that it will be 
well to review the whole of the passages in the New 
Testament in which the words are used, in order to a 
correct appreciation of the true significance of the 
phrase. 

John... when he saw many of the Pharisees and 
Sadducees coming to his baptism, said unto them... I 
indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He 
that cometh after me ts mightier than I, Whose shoes I 
am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the 
Holy Spirit and with fire.* 

John ... preached, saying . . . I baptized you with 
water; but He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit? 

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize 
you with water; but there cometh He that is mightier 
than I, the latchet of Whose shoes I am not worthy to 
unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and 
with fire.® | 

John answered them, saying. I baptize with water: in 
the midst of you standeth One Whom ye know not, even 
He that cometh after me, the latchet of Whose shoe I am 


1 Matt. iii. q-11. 7 Mark i. 6-8. *® Luke iii. 16 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 171 


not worthy to unloose.’ ... And John bare witness, 
saying, I have beheld the Spirit descending as a dove out 
of heaven; and it abode upon Him. And I knew Him 
not: but He that sent me to baptize with water, He said 
unto me, Upon Whomsoever thou shalt see the Spirit 
descending, and abiding upon Him, the same is He that 
baptizeth with the Holy Spirit.” 

It is more than remarkable, it is almost startling to 
discover that the Gospels which chronicle the life and 
ministry of Christ, have no account of this baptism of 
the Spirit, save the prophecy of His coming uttered by © 
John the Baptist, who spoke of it as something beyond 
himself, his message, and his age. 

What the baptism of the Spirit is may be gathered 
from the word of the Master to Nicodemus: Jesus 
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man 
be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the 
kingdom of God.* The inference is, that if a man be 
born of water and the Spirit, he can enter into the king- 
dom of God. But follow the words still further: That 
which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born 
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, 
Ye must be born anew. The wind bloweth where it list- 
eth, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not 
whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one 
that is born of the Spirit. | 

Except a man be born of water and the Spirit is a 


1 John i. 26, 27. * John i. 32, 33. *John iii. 5-8. 


172 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


passage about which there is great diversity of opinion. 
The Master is here linking His own teaching and dispen- 
sation to the teaching and dispensation that is conclud- 
ing with the mission of John. The water baptism is . 
the baptism of John, and the Spirit baptism is the bap- 
tism of Jesus, the gift of life. That which is symbol- 
ized by the first is necessary, for/repentance must pre- 
cede life; but the baptism of the Spirit is the gift of life 
by which a man is admitted into the kingdom of God. 
In the Gospels, John standing as the forerunner, de- , 
clared: I indeed baptize you with water; but there com- 
eth He that is mightier than I... He shall baptize 
you with the Holy Spirit.1 Years passed, John’s min- 
istry was ended, the earthly ministry of Christ was 
ended, the Cross and Resurrection were accomplished 
facts. Jesus now stood amid His disciples, and be- 


fore He ascended on high He said to them: John, 


indeed baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized 
with the Holy Spirit not many days hence. There 
had been as yet no baptism with the Holy Spirit; 
and, consequently, these men gathered around Christ 
had not yet entered into the final relationship with Him 
that characterizes the Christian dispensation, and forms 
the holy catholic Church. They had been the disciples 
of a Jewish Messiah; but now that relation was passing 
away, and the living Lord in resurrection glory was 
about to pour upon them the baptism predicted by John. 


1Luke iii. 16. ?Acts i. 5. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 173 


Christ took up the words of His forerunner, and claimed 
that they were to be fulfilled in the experience of these | 
men: John indeed baptized with water—that is as far. 
as they had gone at the moment; but the greater bless- 
ing was coming—ye shall be baptized with the H 28 
Spirit not many days hence. 

And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, 
even as on us at the beginning. And I remembered the 
word of the Lord, how that He said, John indeed bap- 
tized with water ; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy 

‘Spirit. If then God gave unto them the like gift as He ‘ 
did also unto us, when we believed on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, who was I, that I could withstand God?! Peter, 
in giving an account of the conversion of Cornelius, de- 
clared that these men were baptized with the Spirit when, 
as he preached, they believed on Christ. The teaching 
of both these passages evidently is, that the Spirit’s bap- 
tism is that by which men pass into the new relationship. 
In both places a contrast is drawn between the baptism 
of the Spirit and the baptism of John, showing that the 
baptism of the Spirit was the power which took men 
beyond the legalism of the old dispensation into the vi- 
tal relationship of the new. 

Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into 
Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were. 
buried therefore with Him through baptism into death: 
that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the 


1 Acts xi. 15-17, 


eS 


174 THE SPIRIT OF GOD > 


glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness 
of life.t This is the only direct reference to the baptism 
of the Spirit in the Letter to the Romans. Certainly 
the baptism referred to is the Spirit’s baptism, for surely 
no man is baptized by water into the death of Christ. 
Water baptism may be a symbol of the great fact that 
a man has passed from death unto life, but the baptism 
by which men are actually brought into relationship with 
the death and the life of Christ is the baptism of the 
Spirit; and it is quite evident that in this argument of 
the Epistle a reference is made to the beginnings of 
spiritual life—to the initial blessing, to the blessing of 
regeneration. 

For in? one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, 
whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free.® Here 
again the reference must be to the moment when men 
entered the Church of Christ; and the statement is that 
then they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. 

For ye are all sons of God, through faith, im Christ 
Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ 
did put on Christ. Faith was the condition of the bap- 
tism by which these people put on Christ and became 
sons of God, that baptism being, undoubtedly, the bap- 
tism of the Holy Spirit. 

One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and 
Father of all.® 

1 Rom. vi. 3, 4. ? Notice the slight alteration of the Revised 


Version—not by one Spirit. *1 Cor. xii. 13. ‘Gal. ili, 26, 27. 
5 Eph. iv. 5, 6. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 175 


One Lord—the object of the sinner’s faith; one faith 
—centred upon the one Lord; one baptism—the baptism 
of the Holy Spirit, by which the sinner becomes the 
Lord’s; one God and Father—the new relationship that 
God bears to the sinner when, baptized by the Spirit, he 
passes into the place of adoption. Here baptism takes 
its place at the beginning of the Christian life, imme- 
diately succeeding faith in the revealed Lord, and suc- 
ceeded by the new relationship to God. 

... When the longsuffering of God waited in the 
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein 
few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: 
which also in the antitype doth now save you, even bap- 
tism, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but 
the interrogation of a good conscience toward God, 
through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Peter says that in the days of Noah the people were 
saved by water; and that men are saved to-day by that 
of which water is a figure—that is to say, men are saved 
by the baptism of the Holy Spirit. 

This is a review of the whole of the passages in the 
New Testament that refer to the question of the bap- 
tism of the Spirit. In every case the reference is, not 
to some blessing subsequent to regeneration, but to re- 
generation itself{—to that supernatural miracle by which 
a soul passes from darkness into light, out of death into 
life, from the thraldom of sin and Satan into the glori- 
ous liberty of a child of God. 


*1 Pet. iii. 20, 21 (margin). 


b 


176 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


This sweeps away the view that the baptism of the 
Spirit is a second blessing. There is absolutely no 
warrant in the whole teaching of Scripture for such 
view ; and therefore there is, further, no warrant for the 
popular and prevalent idea that the Holy Spirit must be 
asked for, or waited for. 

Referring to the oft-quoted words of the Master, If 
ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your Father which 
is in heaven give good things to them that ask Him? it 
has already been shown? that these words were spoken 
while He was fulfilling His work as the Jewish Messiah 
to Jewish disciples. They never asked, and therefore 
never received the Spirit through their asking. He came 
in reply to the asking of Jesus, upon the ground of His 
finished work. The Spirit is never given in answer to 
human asking; but upon the ground of repentance and 
faith, man is baptized therewith, and from that moment 
the Spirit of God takes possession and dwells within. 
The believer may check Him, hinder Him, thwart Him, 
and grieve Him, but from the moment of the new birth 
he is a temple of the Holy Spirit. It is, then, in the 
initial miracle of regeneration that souls are baptized 
with the Holy Spirit. 

On the same ground it is not right that Christian 
people should profess to be waiting for the baptism of 
the Spirit. The words, Tarry, . . . until ye be clothed 


1Matt. vii. 11. ? Chapter VII. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 177 


with power from on high, have no application to new- 


born souls at all; or !f they have an application, it is one 


that is a sad revelation of a condition of life that dishon-~ 


ours the Lord. If men have to tarry until endued with 
power, it is not because God has not given the Spirit, 
but because there is something in the life which will not 


let the Spirit work. Every believer is a temple of the 


Holy Spirit ; and if there be tarrying, it is on account of 
some disobedience, and not on account of any unreadi- 
ness on the part of God to bestow full blessing upon all 


. 


His children. Such tarrying is not the waiting of man 


for the Spirit, but the waiting of the Spirit for man, 

There are certain passages in the Acts of the Naot 
which are used to show that the gift of the Holy Spirit 
or the baptism of the Spirit is subsequent to conversion. 

Philip went to Samaria and preached’ there; people 
believed in Jesus, and were baptized in His name. Af- 
ter that the apostles visited these believers, and they 
received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is asserted that 
people believe on Christ and are baptized ; but the Holy 
Spirit has to be received as a second blessing. 

Carefully notice what actually took place. Philip 
came to Samaria, preached in the name of Jesus, and 
men believed in some intellectual sense, and were bap- 
tized. Among the number was Simon Magus.’ It is 
impossible to distinguish between Simon Magus and the 
rest, because the statement that Simon Magus believed 


* Luke xxiv. 49. 


178 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


is as distinct as is the statement that the others did so, 
and the Scriptures as distinctly state that he was bap- 
tized because he believed, as that the others were Dap- 
tized because they believed. But when the apostles 
came, Peter thus described Simon Magus: Thou hast 
neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart 1s not 
right before God... . For I see that thou art im the 
gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. As to 
the others, Peter unfolded to them the full meaning of 
the Gospel message, and those that heard it received the 
Holy Spirit. None of them had received the Spirit, and 
therefore none of them were born again. These people 
of Samaria, it must be remembered, held the Jewish 
view of Messiahship, and their belief in Jesus, was in 
Him as having come for the establishment of the earthly 
kingdom. They had given an intellectual assent to the 
story of Jesus, and, having believed it, had consented to 
go through an outward form and ceremony ; but not un- 
til the apostles came, and the Spirit of God fell upon 
them, were they members of the Church or converted 
souls. 

Again, the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus 
is used in the same way: And Ananias departed, and 
entered into the house; and laying his hands on him said, 
Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, Who appeared unto 
thee in the way which thou camest, hath sent me, that 
thou mayest receive thy sight, and be filled with the 


1 Acts viii. 21-23. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 179 


Holy Spirit. And straightway there fell from his eyes 
as it were scales, and he received his sight; and he arose 
and was baptized; and he took food and was strength- 
ened.* Concerning this case there is certainly room for 
doubt. The probability, however, is that the procedure is 
in harmony with all the rest, and that Saul was arrested 
and convinced of the kingship of Jesus on the road 
to Damascus, but did not enter into the Church by re- 
generation until the fuller light came from the instruc- 
tion of Ananias. Even if it be granted that there were 
certain people who believed in Jesus, yet did not imme- 
diately receive the Holy Spirit, it must be remembered 
that cases like these are not to be found in the subse- 
quent story of the Acts. 

The passage most often used in this way is the ques- 
tion Paul addressed to certain people at Ephesus: Did 
ye recewwe the Holy Spirit when ye believed?? The 
Authorized Version, with less accuracy, translated it: 
Have ye received the Holy Spirit since ye believed? 
This, it is alleged, gives a clear case of people who had 
believed and yet had not received the Holy Spirit. But 
here again the facts of the case must be carefully exam- 
ined. Paul came to Ephesus, and found there a little 
company of believers in Jesus. There is no record as 
to why he put this question to them, but he asked them: 
Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed? The 
question evidently carries with it the thought that they 


1 Acts ix. 17-19. * Acts xix. 2, 


180 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


ought to have done so. And they said unto him, Nay, 
we did not so much as hear whether the Holy Spirit was 
given. And he said [most probably in surprise], Into 
what then were ye baptized? And they said, Into John’s 
baptism. And Paul said, John baptized with the bap- 
tism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they 
should believe on Him which should come after him, 
that 1s, on Jesus. And when they heard this, they were 
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. And when 
Paul had laid Ms hands upon them, the Holy Spirit 
came on them." 

These people were not Christians, they were not born 
again; they were the disciples of Jesus as He was 
heralded by John. It was therefore necessary for them 
to receive the Holy Spirit, in order that they might pass 
from that region of water baptism into the region of the 
baptism of the Holy Spirit. But it may be wondered 
how there came to be disciples of John as far away as 
Ephesus. The explanation is found in the context: 
Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by 
race, a learned man, came to Ephesus; and he was 
mighty im the Scriptures. ... Being fervent in spirit, 
he spake and taught carefully the things concerning 
Jesus, knowing only the baptism of John.? That ac- 
counts for the presence of disciples at Ephesus. When 
Apollos came there, he himself did not know the bap- 
tism of the Spirit; and these were people baptized with 


tActs xix. 2-6...7 Acts xviii. 24, 25. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 18% 


the baptism of John, and knowing therefore only so 


much of Jesus as John himself had been able to declare. 
Apollos himself had to be instructed in the way of God 


more carefully ;* and when the apostle came, this hand- 
ful of believers in John’s baptism had also to be taught. 
Therefore to interpret this text as teaching that beyond 
the day of conversion there is some other gift of the 
Holy Spirit necessary, is to wrest it out of its proper set- 
ting and to set up a new standard of Christian life, for 
which it gives no warrant. ? 

There are many moral people who admire Christ, and 
have perchance even been baptized with John’s bap- 
tism, but they have never been born again: to them this 
text has a direct application. But to people born again 
of the Spirit of God, there can be no application of this 
message, because by the new birth they have received the 
Holy Spirit, and into that Spirit they have been bap- 
tized. 

The baptism of the Spirit, then, is that miracle of 
regeneration whereby a man passes into the new realm 
of life in which Christ is supreme in the power of His 
own communicated life. 

In the great commission, He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be 
condemned,’ most assuredly the baptism referred to is 
that of the Holy Spirit. The words declare the condj- 
tion of salvation and the promise thereof: He that be- 


* Acts xviii. 26. ®% Mark xvi. 16. 


182 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


lieveth [that is the human condition] and 1s baptized 
[that is the Divine miracle] shall be saved. When the 
negative side is stated, baptism is omitted, as being un- 
necessary; for he that disbelieveth cannot be baptized. 
If it is water baptism, he can; but if it is the baptism 
of the Spirit, he cannot. Thus in that commission the 
Lord most evidently puts the baptism of the Spirit at 
the very entrance of the kingdom. Men believing (one 
faith), and being baptized (one baptism), are saved; 
while he that believeth not is condemned. 

By this baptism of the Spirit the individual becomes 
a temple of the Holy Spirit ; and the message that ought 
to be delivered to Christian people to-day is: Ye area 
temple of God,’ do not desecrate the temple, but let the 
Divine One Who indwells, govern absolutely the whole 
being. Not that the heart should be opened to admit 
the Spirit ; for God’s children are such because the Holy 
Spirit has already taken possession, and even though de- 
filed, they nevertheless are the temples of the Holy 
Spirit; for it was not to sanctified people, in the usually 
accepted sense of the term, that the apostle said: Ye 
are a temple of God. The central fact, the great and 
almost appalling miracle of Christianity, is that persons 
baptized by the Spirit become temples of God. They 
also become members of the catholic Church, parts of 
the Body of Christ. Moreover, by that baptism they 
are sealed unto a consummation, sealed unto the final 
day of redemption. 


1Cor. iii. 16. 


THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT 183 


It is to be feared that many, in emphasizing what is 
spoken of as the second blessing—an idea and an ex- — 
pression to be found nowhere in Scripture—insult and 
degrade the blessing of regeneration, which holds within _ 
itself all subsquent unfoldings of blessing and of power. 


XVI 
PAE PIDLING OF TELE) SPIRIT 


(THE NEW TESTAMENT IDEAL) 


N discussing this subject, the one matter of impor- 
tance is the discovery of the sense in which the term 
the filling of the Spirit is used in the New Testament. 

In one form or another it occurs four times prior to 
the Pentecostal effusion :— 

For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and he 
shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be 
filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s 
womb.* 

And it came to pass, when Elisabeth heard the saluta- 
tion of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisa- 
beth was filled with the Holy Spirit; and she lifted up 
her voice with a loud cry.” 

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy 
Spirit, and prophesied, saying.® | 

And J esus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the 
Jordan, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 
during forty days.* 

Puke i, rs.) * Luke: 47) (42.) 2" Lake e670 4 Lukeviv. 5. 

184 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT 185 


John, the forerunner of the Christ, was filled with the 
Spirit from his birth. Elisabeth was filled with the 
Spirit for the singing of a sacred song. Zacharias was » 
filled with the Spirit for the uttering of prophecy. The 
Lord was filled with the Spirit for the exercise of His 
Messianic ministry. | 

This filling of certain persons, prior to the Pente- 
costal effusion, was a continuation of the Spirit’s work, 
in keeping with the methods which had characterized the 
whole of the dispensation then drawing to a close. Just 
as in the past the Spirit had filled men for the accom- 
plishment of special work for God; so, as the dispensa- 
tion drew to a close, and Messiah approached, He again 
equipped those who were to do the special work the oc- 
casion demanded. 

A clear line is drawn between the old and the new 
dispensations; and the teaching of the New Testament 
concerning the filling of the Spirit in the dispensation 
which had its birth at Pentecost is very distinct. 

The expression occurs in the Acts of the Apostles 
cight times, and once in the Letter to the Ephesians. 
These passages practically contain the whole system. 

The sum of that teaching is that the Spirit-filled life 
is the normal condition of the believer. There are those 
who believe that the filling of the Spirit is something 
which is not merely a second blessing in the experience 
of the majority of Christians, but in the purpose of God. 
But just as the baptism of the Spirit is never spoken of 


186 THE:SPIRIT, OE (GOD 


as a second blessing, but always as the initial blessing of 
regeneration; so in the economy of God the filling of 
the Spirit is coincident with conversion. When a man 
is baptized with the Spirit, he is born of the Spirit, and 
‘is filled with the Spirit. There are many who do not 
enter into the realization of that blessedness at conver- 
sion. In the purpose of God, however, the normal con- 
dition of Christian life is that of being baptized by the 
Spirit into life, and filled with the Spirit for life. 

Nothing can be clearer than the statement of what 
happened on the Day of Pentecost: And there ap- 
peared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of 
fire; and it sat upon each one of them. And they were 
all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with 
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.* In 
the moment when the group of Jewish disciples was 
transformed into the Church, the Spirit was not only 
given to them, He filled them. It is evident, therefore, 
from the account of the opening of the dispensation, that 
in the purpose of God those who passed into its new 
life, new glory, new breadth, and new beauty were bap- 
tized and filled with the Spirit. 

An illustration of this occurs in the history of the 
early days. Saul of Tarsus, breathing threatening and 
slaughter against the disciples of the Lord,” was on his 
way to Damascus, when he was suddenly arrested by the 
shining of a light from heaven; he heard the voice of 


RA Cts dic 3) 4a) et ActS tks 8. 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT 187 


Jesus, and yielded to the claim of the Master, saying: 
What shall I do, Lord?! He remained blind; and having © 
been led to Damascus, the Master sent Ananias to him: 
And Ananias departed, and entered into the house; and 
laying his hands on him, said, Brother Saul, the Lord 
even Jesus, who appeared unto thee in the way which 
thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mayest receive thy 
sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. It may be a 
matter of opinion as to whether that was the moment of 
his conversion or not.” Even if he were born of the 
Spirit on the way to Damascus, the filling of the Spirit, 
according to this teaching, came immediately, and was 
part of the very earliest experience of his Christian life. 
It follows, therefore, that the will of God for His 
people is that they should be filled at once; that God does 
not give a man the Spirit to-day, and then make him, 
as a necessity, wait for perhaps a number of years before 
he is filled with the Spirit ; but that the supreme miracle 
by which a man is born of the Spirit, and so baptized of 
the Spirit into new relationship with Christ, is also the 
miracle by which he becomes filled with the Spirit of 
God. : 
There is another use made of this same phrase in the. 
Acts of the Apostles: And when they had set them in 
the midst, they inquired, By what power, or in what 
name, have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the 
Holy Spirit, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and 


* Acts xxii. 10. 7? Acts ix. 17, * Chapter XV. 


188 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


elders, if we this day are examined. ...1 The sense 
of the word filled in this case is that of being specially 
filled for special work. It does not describe a normal 
condition of life, but a specific filling, in order that he 
might be specially prepared for work that awaited him 
at that moment. Filled with the Spirit, he spake the 
words. 

Another instance of the same kind is chronicled in 
the words: But Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with 
the Holy Spirit, fastened his eyes on him [that is, on 
Elymas the sorcerer], and said, O full of all guile and 
all villany, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all right- 
eousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways 
of the Lord?? A special work of discipline had to be | 
performed: a man who had wronged the truth and the 
faith had to be rebuked, and Paul was suddenly filled 
with the Holy Spirit for the doing of that particular 
work. 

Again the term is used in a way that includes the fill- 
ing for life and service, the former being viewed as the 
condition for the latter: Look ye out therefore, breth- 
ren, from among you seven men of good report, full of 
the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint over 
this business... . And the saying pleased the whole 
multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith 
and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip. ...* These men 
were chosen for work in the Church because they were 
full of the Spirit. 


1 Acts iv. 7-9. ? Acts xili.9, 10. 8 Acts vi. 3-5. 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT 189 


It is written of Barnabas that he was a good man, and 
full of the Holy Spirit and of faith: and much people 
was added unto the Lord.’ ; 


These are the occasions where the terni is used in ~ 


the Acts of the Apostles with reference to service. 
Twice in the case of the deacons, and also in the case of 
Barnabas, it is evident that the condition for service is 
that men should be full of the Spirit—not that there 
should be a special gift, but that they should be living 
the life that is Spirit-filled. Where that is so, they are 
fit for the office of deacon; where that is so, they are 
fit, as was Barnabas, for visiting the churches and for 
administering spiritual comfort. But from the other 
instances of Peter and Paul, it is equally clear that the 
term is used with reference to a special filling for a 
special work. 

The phrase is also used in a sense proving that 
though the filliny of the Spirit is the normal condition 
of the believer’s life, yet it may be lost and restored: 
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where- 
m they were gatheed together; and they were all filled 
with the Holy Spirit, and they spake the word of God 
with boldness.* This has been erroneously spoken of as 
the second Pentecost. ‘There can be no second Pente- 
cost. Pentecost came once and for ever. Undoubtedly 
a second manifestation of the Spirit is here referred to; 
but it was rendered necessary because these men had 
passed into a realm of fear and of trembling. Peter and 


MAN Cts xt) 24) ACES IV. 3. 


190 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


John were imprisoned, and the disciples were gathered 
in fear and trembling, hardly daring to open the doors 
or show themselves. When Peter and John were mirac- 
ulously restored and came into their midst, they gave 
themselves to prayer, asking that they might have bold- 
ness. The answer to their prayer was the shaking of 
the house in which they were assembled, and their refill- 
ing with the Spirit. These men had not lost the Spirit. 
They had been sealed unto the day of redemption. Born 
of the Spirit, the Spirit remained in them ; but through 
their own fear, unbelief, and lack of loyalty to Jesus 
Christ, the blessing of the Spirit’s fulness had been lost. 
When they returned to the Lord, the filling was granted 
to them anew. 

Another instance is recorded which gives yet another 
light on the subject. Of Stephen itwis said<) Butine, 
being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up stedfastly mto 
heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on 
the right hand of God.t Passing through martyrdom, 
Stephen was strengthened in his suffering by a vision 
of his Master in the glory. The condition for seeing the 
vision was the fulness of the Holy Spirit. 

These are the only instances in the Acts of the 
Apostles where the term filling of the Spirit is used. 
The stm of their teaching may .thus be stated. 
The Spirit-filled life is the normal condition of the be- 
liever; it may be lost; it can be restored. New-born 


1 Acts vii. 55. 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT Tor 


souls, baptized by the Spirit into union with Christ, are 
filled ; but very often, for lack of clear teaching and full 
understanding of the law of the Spirit, the fulness of the - 
blessing is lost. 

There are thousands whose memories go hack to some 
convention, to some service, to some hour of loneliness 
with God, when they became Spirit-filled in a sense which 
they had never experienced before. The explanation of 
this fact is, that at some point in their Christian life, 
preceding the experience of which they speak as a 
second blessing, they had been disobedient to the Di- 
vine purpose; and therefore the blame of the low- 
level life preceding that blessing is to be laid, not | 
upon the economy of God, but upon the disloyalty 
of the believer. There is no reason why a man 
should not immediately from the moment of regenera- 
tion enter into all the blessedness' of the Spirit-filled life: 
that is the Divine intention, and that is the Divine pur- 
pose. This ‘s a question of condition and not of finality. 
- The law of growth is that the heliever should be Spirit- 
filled. 

For special service there is, however, a special filling | 
of the Holy Spirit, and whether it be Peter or Paul or_ 
any other servant of Christ having a special work to do 
for Him, that servant may be especially filled with the 
Spirit for the accomplishment of that special work. 

There is one other passage demanding attention: And 
be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled 


192 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


| with the Spirit. The injunction be filled with the 
Spirit is in the imperative. It is a command; and the 
fact that it is a command lays responsibility, not upon 
God, but upon the believer. In the commencement of 
the Epistle the whole scheme of thought which was here 
in the mind of the apostle is stated: Jn Whom ye also, 
having heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your 
salvation,—1n Whom, having also believed, ye were 
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an 
earnest of our inherttance.* The sealing of the Spirit 
is identical with the baptism of the Spirit. The apostle 
is writing to people who are sealed with the Spirit, and 
he charges them to be filled with the Spirit. Here are 
two distinct things—the sealing of the Spirit, and the 
filling of the Spirit. Though the filling be coincident 
with the sealing, it is necessary to enjoin these people 
to be filled, because that is the point of their responsibil- 
ity. That responsibility is revealed in the words: 
Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom ye were 
sealed unto the day of redemption.* Here is a solution 
of the mystery that gathers around the experience of 
thousands of Christians. They are born of the Spirit, 
and none will deny that they are Christians. They are 
not, however, filled with the Spirit, for the fruit of the 
_ Spirit is not manifest in their lives. The reason for this 
is that they have grieved the Holy Spirit of God some- 
- where in the past. The path of obedience has been 


+ Eph.'v. 18. .* Eph. 3, 13, 14. 2Eph iv, °30, 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT £93 


clearly marked, and they have disobeyed. Christian 
people who are baptized by the Spirit into new relation- 
ship with Christ have grieved the Spirit by disobedience, — 
lukewarmness, indifference to the claims of Christ, 
worldliness, or frivolity, and they are therefore not filled 
with the Spirit. The subject of responsibility, showing 
what are the conditions of the filling and what is the 
result of the filling, will form the subject of a subsequent 
chapter.’ 

Dr. Erdmanh, of Philadelphia, has given a formula of | 
the law of the Spirit in these words—One baptism, | 
many fillings; and perhaps no statement of the case ~ 
could be more helpful. It is borne out by New Testa- 
ment teaching and history. One baptism—the moment 
of the new birth, when the Spirit comes upon the re- 
penting and believing soul and unites that soul to Christ. 
Christians may be disobedient and lose the filling of 
the Spirit, and by repentance and obedience it may be 
restored ; and in the experience of multitudes of beliey- 
ers this formula is proved to be correct—One baptism, 
but many fillings. 

This is also illustrated, as has been already shown, by 
the filling of the apostles at the baptism of Pentecost, 
and by their refilling subsequently, which was by no- 
means a second baptism. The specific fillings for sery- 
ice are the fillings to overflowing, of which the Lord 
Himself declared: He that believeth on Me... out of 


1Chapter XIX. 


194 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


his belly shall flow rivers of living water. This third 
phase of blessing, the specific work of the Spirit for serv- 
ice, has sometimes been spoken of as an anointing of 
the Spirit, but without Scripture warrant. The term 
anointing of the Spirit? is used only twice with regard 
to Christians. In both places the reference is to regen- 
eration. There are those who are perpetually declaring 
that Christians must follow in the steps of Christ, and 
that, as He was anointed for His work, so must they be 
for theirs; but there is no perfect analogy between the 
dealings of God with Christ, and His dealings with be- 
lievers, because Christ was sinless and spotless, while 
they have always to be dealt with as those who have 
failed, and must be restored to the divine pattern. It 
would be just as incorrect to speak of a second anointing 
as of a second Pentecost, or of a second Pentecost as of 
a second anointing. The anointing which is on the child 
of God is that which was received at regeneration. What 
is needed for life is the perpetual filling of the Spirit 
which is the normal condition of those who are living in 
the way of God, and the specific fillings to overflowing 
which may always be counted on when special service 
demands. 

Every believer on the Lord Jesus Christ having vital 
relationship with Him, became a Christian when bap- 
tized with the Holy Spirit, and at the moment of bap- 
tism was filled with the Spirit. If not filled with the 


Plone Vil Shu H7 2 COte 1 oe ae onnaL2r. 


THE FILLING OF THE SPIRIT 195 


Spirit now, the blame is to be laid, not upon the Master, 
but upon personal disobedience. Somewhere in the life 
of relationship to Christ there was a moment of disobe- _ 
dience, a moment of disloyalty, a moment of rebellion — 
against government; and by that rebellion the filling of 
the Spirit was lost. It may be restored by restoration to 
obedience, the new yielding of the life to the Spirit. He 
will enter and will take possession of the territory from 
which by disobedience He has been excluded. Dr. 
Handley Moule, who is perhaps one of the most lucid 
exponents of the Scriptures upon this subject, says that 
the difference between a soul that is filled with the Spirit 
and one that is unfilled, is the difference between a well 
in which there is a spring of water choked, and a well 
from which the obstruction has been removed, so that 
the water springs up and fills the well. In every child 
of God the Spirit is present, waiting to fill; and if He 
does not fill the whole life to its utmost bound with His 
own energy, light, and power, it is because there is some- 
thing which prevents Him, and which must be removed 
before He can do His blessed work. 

The filling of the Spirit is indeed an experience far 
beyond that of which the majority of Christians know 
anything ; but it is the purpose of God that every child 
of His ‘should be filled, not a year, nor two years, nor 
ten years after conversion, but at the moment of con- 
version, and perpetually until the consummation of his 
sojourn upon the earth. | 


XVII 
THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 


T HE first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles is of 

great interest, as giving the last glimpse of the dis- 
ciples of Jesus apart from the indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. The picture is full of instruction, revealing with 
clearness the enormous difference there must ever be 
between man in his fallen nature, and man as he may be 
through the baptism and indwelling of the Spirit. One 
cannot look at this picture, incomplete though it may be, 
without seeing that these men were still ignorant and 
selfish. There is no comparison between the men of the 
first chapter, and the men of the subsequent history con- 
tained in the book. 

They came to the risen Lord with the old question: 
Lord, dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to 
Israel?! They had made no progress. The events of 
the past weeks had not been sufficient to reveal. to them 
the great essential verities of the Christian faith. They 
were still bound by the materialism of Judaism; the 


1 Acts i. 6. 
19 


THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 197 


spiritual vision had not yet fallen upon them; they did 
not understand the mission of Christ. They were still 
looking for a temporal kingdom which should be imme- 
diately set up. They had no appreciation of the fact 
that Jesus was passing to a hidden throne and a hidden 
crown, and that the work to which they were now to be 
committed was not temporal, external, and material, but 
eternal, internal, and spiritual. 

They had not yet escaped from the narrow national 
prejudices which had been the curse of the nation for 
so long. Dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom 
to Israel? They had no idea of the world-wide kingdom 
of the Messiah. Their vision was still limited by the 
horizon of their own people. The Master had ever 
looked beyond the confines of the nation. Not so the 
disciples, neither were they yet able to do so. 

They did not understand that the work He had come 
to do was something absolutely new. They dreamed of 
the restoration of the old. Restore was the word they 


made use of. 
Their love was deep, and true, and intense; their 


knowledge during the days of discipleship was far in ad- 
vance of that of the men of their age; the Resurrection 
was to them a fact, for the living Christ was in their 
midst. Yet they were absolutely unfit for the work they 
had to do, for they were still looking for the temporal 
kingdom to be set up in the same way that other earthly 
kingdoms had been. 


198 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


To these men Christ said: Ye shall recewe power, 
/ when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be 
OM y witnesses both in Jerusalem, and i all Judea and 
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.* This 
word answers and corrects the false idea contained in 
their question. They said: Dost Thou at this time re- 
store the kingdom? ‘They thought of a return to old 
things. He replied: Ye shall be My witnesses. He 
directed their thought to the new Centre. ‘They said: 
Dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom? Their 
minds were fixed upon earthly things. He said: Ye 
shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come. His 
mind encompassed the spiritual relationship. They said : 
Dost Thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? 
They were bound by the idea of the nation. He replied: 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and S amaria, and unto the 
uttermost part of the earth. He included the world in 
His vision. 
_ This was a new beginning, moving out from Him- 
self as Centre, having the Holy Spirit as Administra- 
tor, and the disciples as channels of communication. 

There is a sense in which these words of the Master 
cannot be addressed to Christian people to-day. These 
men had not yet been baptized with the Holy Spirit ; 
they were not yet born again. Those that are Chris- 
tians to-day are such by that baptism and new birth; 
and, consequently, they possess the power promised to 
these men. 

1 Acts i. 8. 


THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 199 


The central principle declared is that fitness for serv- 
ice in the new covenant lies within the realm of the 
power of the Holy Spirit. This is of perpetual applica- 


tion, and it is therefore important that a chapter should ~ 


be devoted to its consideration. There are three matters 
to be noted: first, the power needed ; secondly, the nature 
of the power available; and, thirdly, the purpose for 
which the power is bestowed. 

For the accomplishment of their work these men 
needed a fourfold force. They needed intellectual 
power, because of their ignorance and inability to appre- 
ciate the meaning of the Master’s mission. They need- 
ed spiritual power, in the sense of ability to do right- 
eously, notwithstanding the carnal possibilities still res- 
ident in their own lives. They needed a new power of 
the affection and will, because of the tremendous forces 
which would be arrayed against them in the prosecution 
of the work that was before them. They needed power 
for the accomplishment of the results at which they 
aimed, because the forces hitherto used in great move- 
ments would be denied them. 

It is not necessary to deal at length with the first 
phase of this need, having already referred to it; but 
their lack of understanding of the Cross must be remem- 
bered. The apostle in writing to the Corinthians de- 
scribed the Cross as being unto Jews a stumbling-block* 
—that is, something in the way, an obstruction ; and up 
to this point their outlook was purely Jewish. Think 


11 Cor. i. 23. 


a 


ZOO THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


how they had followed the Master, and how they had 
learned to love Him. Then remember how swiftly 
doom fell upon Him, their Teacher, their Friend. They 
had seen Him overcome by the detested Roman power, 
and nailed to the Cross. It is only as their place is oc- 
cupied in imagination, and the prejudices of their birth 
and education are in some measure understood, that it 
will be possible to appreciate how completely the Cross 
must have extinguished hope for them, and how sincere 
and sad was the sigh of the men who walked to Em- 
maus: We hoped that tt was He which should redeem 
Israel." 

Of the mysteries that are the essential grandeur of 
Christianity,—death, the entrance to life—life won 
through death; defeat, the way into victory—victory 
won through defeat; darkness, the price of light—light 
dawning out of darkness,—they had no appreciation. 
They saw only the death, the defeat, and the darkness. 
The Cross was to them a stumbling-block. Afterwards 
they told the story of the Cross as being the story of 
love, of liberty, of light; but before they were able to do 
this, they needed a new intellectual grasp upon the 
things of God. The power they were to receive, after 
that the Holy Spirit came upon them was the new power 
of intelligence, enabling them to comprehend the true 
meaning of the facts they were to publish. 

The second phase of the need is the power for holy 


1 Luke. xxiv. 21. 


POWER OF THE SPIRIT 201 


living. In the purpose of God the force and meaning 
of the Cross were to be revealed to men not merely by 
the words of His servant’s lips, but also by the transfor-. 
mation of their lives. Man had been the slave of his 
own carnality, dominated by the evil forces within him. 
Henceforth he is to be free from this power; in union 
with Jesus Christ he is to be master of the things that 
have mastered him. ‘The essential message of the Gos- 
pel is the declaration that through the Cross and Res- 
urrection of Christ a new dynamic is at the disposal of 
men, in the power of which they may be victorious, 
trampling under their feet the lust of which hitherto 
they have been the slaves. Witness to this truth is to be 
borne not only by a testimony of the lips, but by the 
triumph of lives, proving the accuracy of the testimony. 
First, a clear appreciation of the meaning of the Cross; 
secondly, the personal apprehension of its power; be- 
hind the testimony the triumph—the testimony proved 
by the triumph, the triumph accounted for by the testi- 
mony. Such is the Divine ideal of the work that lay 
before these men. If this indeed be true, it is evident 
that they needed this power of Holiness that their lives 
might be transformed. It is this power that He prom- 
ised to them when He spoke of the coming of the Holy 
Spirit. 

Further, they needed new power of the affection and 
will. Persecution awaited them. - All the forces that 
had been against their Master would oppose them. The 


202 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


doctrine of deliverance which they were to announce 
was revolutionary, and the powers that held men in 
slavery would array themselves to silence their voices 
and stop their progress. If they were to continue bear- 
ing witness to Him through darkness as well as through 
light, when the way was rough as well as when it was 
smooth, through the perils of popularity as well as 
through the dangers of ostracism, they needed some new 
power of the affection and the will, which should make 
their love burn as a flame, and set their faces as flint. 

They had already been in one place of testing, and 
with what dire results! Oh the tragedy of that simple 
sentence. They all left Him, and fled!’ If they had 
done that while He was yet with them, while the power 
of His personality was upon them, how would they act 
when the clouds had hidden Him from view and the 
sound of His voice was not to be heard? They stood in 
need of a power that should keep love burning, and the 
will to accomplish their work unconquered. 


They cannot drive the world 
Until themselves be driven. 


This power is precisely what Jesus promised in the in- 
dwelling Spirit. Ever revealing the fact of the Christ 
to the disciples, He would capture the soul by the vision 
of love every moment, and make the will to do His work 
invincible as the very will of God. 


1 Mark xiv. 50. 


THE POWER’) OF THE SPIRIT 203 


Once more, they needed a new working power. Said 
the Master: Ye shall be My witnesses both in Jerusa- 
lem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the utter- 
most part of the earth... They were to tell the story of 
His life and death to all men; they were to urge His 
claims upon the attention of men; they were to win men 
for Him. And all this was to be done without the aids 
that human wisdom would immediately think of. The 
conquests of the past had been the conquests of argu- 
ment, and policy, and the sword. These were all denied 
them. They had no commission to persuade men by 
argument. Policy had no place in their programme. 
Of the sword the Master Himself had said: Putup... 
thy sword ... for all they that take the sword shall 
perish with the sword.? 

By other methods they were to accomplish their work. 
The propagandists of the new kingdom were sent forth 
in the name of an absent King, with no sign of power 
recognized by the men of the world. They needed some 
new power, and this is exactly what the Master promised 
them when He spoke of the coming of the Holy Spirit. 
Having that power, they should pass into all lands, and 
do deeds and win triumphs more mighty and marvellous 
than any that the world had ever seen or known. 

So far the first disciples have been under considera- 
tion, but the teaching is permanent. No man can do 
the work of God until he have the Holy Spirit, and is 


*Acts i. 8. 7 Matt. xxvi. 52. 


204 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


endued with power. It is impossible to preach the Gos- 
pel save in the power of the Spirit, because none can 
comprehend the true meaning of the Cross of Christ 
unless taught by the Spirit of God. Neither a know]- 
edge of the letter of the New Testament, nor a system 
of theology, is sufficient to equip for preaching the 
Cross. Nothing short of the immediate, direct, per- 
sonal illumination of the Spirit is sufficient equipment. 
Witness for the Master is impossible save to those who 
co-operate with the supreme Witness. The keenest in- 
tellect and the most cultured mind are unable to under- 
stand the mystery of redemption, and therefore cannot 
explain it to others. Whoever can say light has broken 
upon the Cross and the eternal morning has dawned, is 
able to do so through the direct illumination of the Holy 
Spirit; and apart from that, there can be no witness and 
no service. 

It is equally true that there can be no witness in 
the life but by this constant indwelling of the Holy 
Spirit. The nature is still capable of sin; and if it pass 
from under the Divine government, all manner of evil 
will follow. Men can only live the life that is in har- 
mony with the teaching of Christ as they are possessed 
and energized by the Holy Spirit of God. 

It is also necessary that the affection and will should 
be under the dominion of the Spirit. Perpetual love 
and perennial joy are only possible where the Spirit of 
God abides at the centre of being, energizing the will 


THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 205 


that else would fail, and strengthening every step in the 
path of obedience. Save as the life is lived under the 
dominion of the Spirit, temptation will prove too strong 
and the sacred Name will be dishonoured. i 

Again, in all service for God, the power of the Spirit 
is still needed. Much has been done since the apostolic 
days for making the work of the preacher easy. The 
Canon of the New Testament is complete; theology has 
been systematized ; the necessity for the thorough equip- 
ment of the preacher educationally, wherever possible, is 
realized: these and many other advantages which the 
early Christian preachers had not, contribute to the 
smoothness of the pathway of the preacher to-day. All 
these, however, are insufficient. Beside them all, and as 
the power which alone makes them of real use, the Holy 
Spirit must equip the preacher, or preaching will degen- 
erate into lifeless rhetoric, or heartless argument. This 
is equally true of every form of Christian service. It is 
pre-eminently the day of organization. Societies have 
multiplied on every hand, and the machinery of the 
Church is complex and multitudinous. This is all 
cause for thankfulness, but it cannot too often be re- 
peated, that apart from the Holy Spirit’s control and 
direction, all is dead. The advantages of the moment 
are not to be despised. Those who would go back to 
primitive simplicity must deny the guidance of God in 
the centuries. Let all be yielded to the fire and power 
of the Spirit for cleansing and energy, and the pulpit will 


206 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


be the greatest force in all human life, and every organ- 
ization of the Church will throb and pulsate with Divine 
energy. 

The nature of the power is evident. It is the coming 
of God to man for the accomplishment of a Divine pur- 
pose in this sacred partnership. Man is helpless apart 
from this immediate co-operation with God. God 
chooses to be helpless apart from co-operation with man. 
Within the next thirty years from Pentecost the whole 
known world was influenced by this handful of men who 
had been gathered by Jesus, and taught by Him with 
stich matchless patience and gentleness, preparatory to 
the Spirit’s baptism. Yet the world failed to compre- 
hend the meaning or to explain the mystery of this new 
movement. The younger Pliny, in a letter to the Em- 
peror about the Christians, said that after enquiries he 
found that they sang hymns about One called Jesus, and 
that they paid the taxes. A most excellent testimony. 
May it still be borne concerning all those who take the 
name of Christ! Yet what a remarkable analysis for an 
educated mind to offer! It was simple and sublime,— 
simple, in that it revealed his failure to comprehend the 
deep meaning of Christianity and his inability to do more 
than read the externals; sublime, in that it unintention- 
ally, yet surely revealed the fact that joy and righteous- 
ness resulted from the worship of God in Christ, and 
the characters of men were so transformed that they 
sang and paid taxes. Asa rule human nature is hardly 


THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT 207 


capable of doing these things; but these men ac- 
complished it, because righteousness itself had become a 
joy in the power of the name of Jesus. It is not to be 
wondered at that they were not understood. The usual ~ 


signs of power were absent altogether. These people 


had no visible Head. The Founder had perished by the 
ignominious death of the Cross. They were gathered 
and marshalled and led, not to arming and battle by the 
cry of a warrior, but silently and surely, to the under- 
mining of empires, and the downfall of dynasties. This 
element of mystery lasts until this hour. The man of 
the world is still unable to account for it. Proof of this 
is to be found in a perusal of his magazine articles occa- 
sionally. The secret of it all is, that within the Church, 
because within every individual member thereof, God 
has taken up His abode; and in a perpetual comradeship 
and co-operation He moves on towards the purposes of 
His heart, through all the forces that oppose, and the 
obstacles that hinder. Wherever Christianity has been 
a real force, working to success, it is because it has been 
spiritual. The wheels of the chariot are clogged by all 
attempts to make arrangements to help God. They are 
speeded when, self forgotten, the Spirit that indwells is 
permitted to have unquestioned and absolute control. _ 

Yet let it be remembered that, if the force of Chris- 
tianity is not of man, it operates through man. God 
has so chosen to work. This was symbolized on the 
Day of Pentecost by the cloven tongues of fire: There 


208 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


appeared unto them tongues parting asunder, like as of 
fire; and tt sat upon each one of them. Tongues, di- 
versities of gifts; fire, the one Spirit. Tongues, the hu- 
man instrument; fire, the Divine energy. Man the in- 
strument ; God, the Worker. 

Much of the lack of power in service to-day is due 
to the fact that the true conception of what service 
should be has been lost. The only reason that those 
who are born again of the Spirit are left in the world is 
that they may be His witnesses. Paul distinctly teaches 
in his Letter to the Ephesians that the supreme vocation 
of the Church lies not in the present age nor in present 
circumstances. Her final work will be the manifesta- 
tion of the wisdom and the grace of God to principalities 
and powers in the heavenly places. The reason why the 
Church is not at once removed to this higher service is, 
that in the midst of the darkness and death around, she 
may witness to her absent but living Lord. 

Light is thrown upon this work by a consideration of 
the word witness. The word actually used is martyr. 
This word is used to-day almost exclusively of those 
who suffer persecution for the truth. That use of the 
word, while dignifying it, is in danger of obscuring its 
first intention. A martyr is one, convinced of truth, 
manifesting that truth in life. The fires of persecution 
never made martyrs—they revealed them. A man who 
was not already a martyr never laid down his life for 


Acts ii. 3. 


THE POWER ‘OF THE SPIRIT 499 


truth. The noble army of martyrs died, not to become 
martyrs, but because they were martyrs. This is the 
distinctive service of all believers in this age. They are 
to reveal in transformed and transfigured lives the glory 
and beauty of the teaching and character of Jesus Christ. 
This ideal of service flings men back at once into the 
place of conscious dependence upon the Holy Spirit, for” 
none can witness of Christ save in actual co-operation 
with Him. Two simple sentences will be helpful in 
otder to understand the law of that co-operation :— 


The Holy Spirit witnesses of Jesus only. 
Only the Holy Spirit witnesses of Jesus. 


It is very important to remember the first of these. 
The Spirit has nothing to say of Himself. His whole 
mission and message has to do with Christ. Many 
people to-day are waiting for a manifestation of the 
Spirit Himself. They are doomed to disappointment. 
When He obtains full possession of any individual, it is 
not His own Person and personality He makes real, but | 
that of Jesus. 

- The second point is of equal importance. Everything 
that is known of the Saviour is known as the result of 
the illumination of the Holy Spirit. He is the Revealer , 
of the Revealer. There can be no communication with. 
Jesus until the Spirit reveals Him to the heart. There is 
no vision of the loveliness of His face save as the Spirit 
anoints the eyes. Herein lies the blessedness of this 


210 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


Pentecostal age. The power for witnessing is the 
birthright of every believer. The Spirit reveals Christ 
to the consciousness. This new sense of the Master 
captivates the will and transforms the entire being into 
likeness to Himself. This development of character is 
also increased capacity for the reception of revelation. 
To that increased capacity the Spirit is able to make still 
more glorious revelation, which yet further increases 
capacity, and prepares the way for still more glorious 
revelation. Thus, in a proportionately increasing ratio, 
life under the control of the Spirit is manifesting the 
glory of the Master, and thus witnessing for Him. 

For such witnessing the world waits to-day. Hu- 
manity amid its sobbing, and its sighing, needs a mani- 
festation of the sons and daughters of the King; and in 
proportion as the temples of the Spirit are yielded to the 
Spirit, that great need of the race is being met. 


BOOK VII 
THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION 


2Ir 


* 


Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
Fill me with life anew, 

That I may love what Thou dost love, 
And do what Thou wouldst do. 


Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
Until my heart is pure, 

Until with Thee I will one will, 
To do and to endure. 


Breathe on me, Breath of God. 

Blend all my soul with Thine, 
Until this earthly part of me 

Glows with Thy fire Divine. 


Breathe on me, Breath of God, 
So shall I never die, 
But live with Thee the perfect life 
Of Thine eternity. 
E. HatcuH. 


212 


XVITI 
YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 


O person can be a child of God but by the re- 
newing work of the Holy Spirit. The entrance 

to Christianity is perpetually and jealously guarded 
by the words of Jesus to Nicodemus: Ye must 
be born anew.t The reason for this is to be found in 
the very nature of Christianity. It presents an ideal of 
life, and enunciates an ethical code, of such a nature as 
to demand something more than themselves. Its ideal 
is Jesus. Its code of ethics is His teaching. These are 
united in a sacred and wondrous union, for all He 
taught men to be, He was Himself. So wondrous was 
He in beauty of character, and so searching and severe 
in the requirements of His law, that man in his im- 
potence is absolutely unable to copy the one, or to obey 
the other. If Christianity, therefore, has nothing more 
to offer men than these, it is an impossible and imprac- 
ticable ideal, a mere mirage of the desert, suggesting 
growth and fertility, but ever eluding the grasp of those 


2 John iii. 7. 
213 


214 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


who, weary and desolate, stretch out longing hands after 
its fruits. The something more required is the essential 
gift and power of Christianity. It comes to men with 
life which is the very life of the Ideal, and is there- 
fore the dynamic of obedience to the code. Nothing 
short of actual participation in that life constitutes any 
human being a Christian. Admiration of the Person 
and character of Christ, together with patronage of His 
teaching, are insufficient, and indeed do but insult the 
purpose of Christianity, whose mission it is, not so much 
to captivate the admiration, as to remake and beautify 
the character. 

These words of Jesus to Nicodemus were the more 
remarkable because spoken to him. He was no profli- 
gate sunk in the mire and filth of bestiality. Nor was 
he a self-centred and self-satisfied Pharisee. He was 
a sincere seeker after truth, and the question he put to 
Jesus revealed the working of his mind. He came toa 
Teacher from God, and therefore he came with an open 
mind willing to receive truth. He was perhaps the most 
perfect example of the highest possibilities of the old 
covenant, which had instructed men in the things of God 
and had led them to the highest act possible in the 
energy of fallen nature—that, namely, of submission to 
a baptism which symbolized repentance. Christ’s an- 
swer cast no aspersion upon the past. It revealed its 
limitations. It was as though He had declared that 
John, the last of the magnificent line of the Hebrew 


YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 215 


prophets, had done all that was possible in leading un- 
regenerate men to the door of the kingdom. To enter, 
there was necessary the new and essential miracle of © 
Christianity—that man should have a second birth, 
without which he could neither see nor enter in. Times 
have not altered human nature, nor have they changed 
the essential character of Christianity. To every seeker 
Jesus still says: Ye must be born anew. The first chap- 
ter of the practical section of this book is therefore de- 
voted to a study of the New Birth, its necessity, nature, 
evidence, and method. 

The teaching of Christ was unified. He said in a 
sentence, what other teachers under the inspiration of 
the Holy Spirit, would unfold in volumes. This con- 
versation with Nicodemus deals fully and finally with 
this whole subject. The teaching of the Epistles is, 
however, valuable, in order that the sayings of the 
Master may be fully comprehended. 

As to the necessity for the new birth, He declared: 
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.1 This state- 
ment must never be construed into a condemnation of 
the physical and material side of man’s nature. That 
matter is inherently evil is a doctrine of devils, that finds 
no warrant in the teaching of Christ or His apostles. 
Every pulse and fibre of physical being owes its crea- 
tion and preservation to the thought and power of God. 
That which He created in His own image, and which, 


1John iii. 6. 


216 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


when redeemed, He inhabits as a temple, is not in itself 
evil. The condition of human life apart from God is 
evil, because it has passed into limitation and prostitu- 
tion. Those wondrous material bases of life upon 
which, for a time, essential being was to manifest itself, 
and be prepared for the final and perfected life, have be- 
come the prison-house of the spirit, and man is attempt- 
ing to live by bread alone, to condition his being in the 
flesh. That is the condition of life which Jesus describes 
as flesh, and of that He says: That which is born of the 
flesh is flesh. The same guarding of terms is neces- 
sary in turning to the Epistles. The writers place the 
natural and spiritual in perpetual antithesis. This is 
not because the spiritual is unnatural, or the natural un- 
spiritual. The deepest fact of human nature is that the 
natural is spiritual, and only when all the being is domi- 
nated by spirit is man natural. A concrete illustration 
may be found in the early chapters of Genesis. The 
man in the garden, himself a spirit tabernacling in 
physical dwelling, and yet holding unafraid communion 
with that God Who is a Spirit, is the natural man. He, 
who presently is seen bending back to earth, and enter- 
ing upon the bread life which is ever through the sweat 
of the brow, is unnatural, because contrary to the Divine 
purpose and thought. When New Testament writers 
speak of the natural man, they are not condemning that 
which is natural in the sense now described. They are 
using the phrase in exactly the same way the Lord here 


YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 217 


used the word flesh, to describe the condition of being 
which is enslaved by the things temporal and material, 
as in opposition to those eternal and spiritual. This is 
the condition under which men are now born, and herein 
lies the necessity for the new birth. 

What this condition really is may be gathered from 
a consideration of certain of the words of Paul. Take, 
first, his description of the Gentiles before they are 
brought into union with Christ: Darkened in their un- 
derstanding, alienated from the life of God.1 That is 
the root-trouble. Man has lost his vision of God. He 
has no true conception of God. Man has ever been at- 
tempting to construct a deity out of the imaginings of 
his own heart, and the result has been the idea of God 
as an enlarged man, and a consequent misconception of 
His true being. <A flesh-conditioned life cannot dis- 
cover God. Hence the necessity for the new birth, 
which is first of all new vision. 

Then consider the apostle’s description of the heart 
of the unregenerate: The mind of the flesh is enmity 
against God.2, How man fears God—nay, hates Him! 
To disturb the peace and mar the pleasure of the world- 
ling, it is only necessary to introduce a conversation 
concerning Divine things. The one constant and suc- 
cessful endeavour of the flesh-homed life is to keep God 
out of conscious touch. There may be no open blas- 
phemy, no avowed hatred, but the unvarying law of life, 


2Eph. iv. 18. *Rom.. viii. 7. 


218 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


and the unchanging order of its activities, reveal that 
man has no desire for God, no joy in His company. A 
flesh-conditioned life cannot love God. Hence the neces- 
sity for the new birth is that of a new possibility of love. 

Again, notice the description the apostle gives of the 
purpose, and set, and impulse, of the unregenerate: 
They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the 
flesh.* It would be a startling revelation to some per- 
sons if they would take the time to examine their own 
lives for any given week, registering the occupation of 
all the hours. One hundred and sixty-eight hours in all, 
—so many given to the spiritual side of life, so many 
to the mental, so many to the purely physical; the vast 
majority devoted to What shall we eat? ... What 
shall we drink? . . . Wherewithal shall we be clothed ?? 
This is so. in many and varied ways, and must con- 
tinue until man is born of the Spirit, and a higher view 
of life, and consequently other impulses, are produced. 

Once again, notice his statement concerning the true 
government of such lives: Ve walked... according 
to the prince of the power of the airs They are the 
slaves of Satan, accomplishing his designs, yielding their 
allegiance to him. All unconsciously, man apart from 
God becomes the abject slave of the devil, and through 
the flesh hears the suggestions and proposals of hell. 
and yields to them, and becomes more and more fast 
bound. 


* Romie wiiis sg. *Matt. yi.) 31s,/* Eph. ai 2, 


YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 219 


This fourfold description explains the meaning of 
Jesus’ words to Nicodemus, and gives the necessity for 
the new birth: That which is born of the flesh is flesh 
The understanding is darkened; the heart is at enmity ; : 
the life is set on the things of the flesh; the being is en- ; 
slaved by Satan. The hopelessness of man is still more 
clearly seen when it is observed that this fourfold de- 
scription is a sequence. The understanding dark, and 
therefore a false conception of God. Then it is not to 
be wondered at that man hates. No man could hate 
the true and living God. The hatred of the human heart 
is for the monster of its own imagination. There can 
be no love for God until all the false views are swept 
away by the new vision that breaks with the new birth. 
If man turn away from God in hatred, it follows that, 
in order to satisfy the craving of his nature, he will turn 
to fleshly things and earthly things, because he has no 
vision of the higher. The man with the muck-rake is 
proving his capacity for the unseen crown by the very 
devotion with which he is searching amid the baubles at 
his feet. There will be no deliverance until a new life 
gives him the sense of those higher possibilities. The 
man thus enslaved is enslaved by Satan. God’s per- 
petual work is to bring man near to Himself, that man 
may love. Satan ever enslaves through agencies and in- 
termediaries, lest man, seeing the corruption, should be 
afraid and escape. This is no flattering tale of the need 


1 John iii. 6. 


220 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


of human nature, yet it is the account which alone is 
true to the facts of history, and the present state of men. 
There is neither light, nor life, nor love, nor liberty save 
in the power of the regeneration of the Holy Spirit. Ye 
must be born anew, for that which is born of the flesh ts 
flesh.* : 

The nature of the change necessary is perhaps most 
sublimely described by the simplicity of the words of 
which Jesus made use: Except a man be born anew.” 
A birth is a beginning. It is not the reconstruction or 
renovation of something already in existence, but the 
commencement of a new thing. That is what a man 
needs, if he would see or enter the kingdom. This 
statement of the case immediately lifts the possibility of 
being a Christian out of the realm of the human as to 
initiation. God only can begin a new thing. Men may 
manipulate the things that are, may replace in another 
order, may imagine they have started, begun something ; 
but give a man nothing and tell him to begin a new 
thing, and the only new thing will be the old nothing. 
Born: that is the supreme fact ; it is the commencement. 
As every living being is a work of God, so, if there is to 
be new birth, that also must be of God. If man must be 
horn anew, then is he helpless until the Spirit of God 
work the creative miracle. 

This view of the Christian life as a new thing was that 
which the apostles clearly enforced: Jf any man is in 


1John iii. 7, 6. ?John iii. 3. 


YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 221 


Christ, there is a new creation: the old things are passed 
away; behold, they are become new. A new creation, 
having a new vision of God, out of which springs a new, 
Jove for God and a new devotion to Him—this is beyond 
the possibility of analysis. It is the mystery of life, | 
and, like every other phase and form of life, is beyond 
the explanation of any teacher or scientist the world has 
produced. 

The result of the new birth Christ declares as clearly 
and as simply in the second half of the verse first quoted: 
That which is born of the Spirit is spirit? Again it 
must be restated that He is not undervaluing the phys- 
ical side of man’s being, and certainly He is not putting 
jit out of count altogether. The vision presented by the 
statement is that of human life in which first,things are 
first, and second things are second, and last things are 
last—life in which spirit is dominant, the lord of being, 
and soul and body are subservient and sanctified. It is 
a perfect contrast to the old life; but it is a contrast 
which consists, not in the exaltation of one side of the 
being at the expense of the others, but in the restora- 
tion of the true balance of power and proportion. The 
change is summarized in the words of Christ, and light 
is thrown again upon this summary from the Epistles. 

Following a law of nature, Christ placed the antidote 
in juxtaposition to the poison. Immediately after His 
summary of the facts of human life in the words That 


22 Cor. v. 17 (margin). ?John iii. 6. 


/ 


222 THE SPIRIT: OF GOD 


which is born of the flesh, is flesh, He gave as brief and 
graphic a description of the changed life: That which is 
born of the Spirit is spirit. This method is followed 
through the New, Testament, and a second reference to 
the statements of the apostle concerning the natural man 
will reveal a statement in each case side by side with 
them, giving the antitheses in the spiritual man. Those 
darkened in their understanding become taught in Him, 
even as truth 1s in Jesus.1 Those of whom it was de- 
clared that the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, 
being born again of the Spirit, and indwelt by the Spirit, 
look into the face of God and cry, Abba, Father. They 
that being after the flesh did mind the things of the flesh, 
now being after the Spirit do mind the things of the 
Spirit.2 Those who walked .. . according to the prince 
of the power of the air, now sit with Him in the heav- 
enly places, in Christ Jesus.® 

The whole form and fashion of the life is changed, 
and the change is so radical and complete that the only 
way in which it is possible to account for it, is by the 
acceptation of the teaching of Christ, that it has been 
brought about by a new creation, a new beginning, a 
new birth. 

As there was a sequence of thought in the description 
of man’s condition in his sinful nature, so also is there 
in the antitheses just glanced at. The first effect of im- 


1Eph. iv. 18, 21. 7 Rom. viii. 7. ®Rom. viii. 1§, 5° © Eph, 
ii. 2. 5 Eph. ii. 6. 


YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 223 


parted life is to give man a true vision of God. That 
which could not be found by the flesh life is discovered 
directly the new life restores the lost sight. Then the 
spirit of man, seeing God, cries, Father. Fear passes, _ 
and the life—tremblingly, it may be, at the beginning, 
but none the less surely—takes hold upon God with 
intense satisfaction and ever-deepening love. That is 
the cure for the minding of earthly things. To revert 
to a former illustration, let but the man with the muck- 
take see the higher things and know they are his own, 
he will forget all the empty trifles that have captivated 
him before. Again, the man satisfied with the things 
of God, becomes, by that very sense of satisfaction, 
master of Satan, and invulnerable against all his attacks. 

The method of the new birth is most definitely stated 
in this same conversation. The miracle itself is a Divine 
work. The condition upon which it is wrought is the 
point of human responsibility. In the words born of the 
Spirit the Master claims the essential act as Divine, and 
most clearly does He show that work to be beyond our 
comprehension. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and 
thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence 
it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is 
born of the Spirit.» Just as the power of the wind is 
beyond dispute by the evidences of its blowing that ap- 
peal to the senses, while the law of its coming and go- 
ing abides a mystery, so the fact of the regenerating 


John iii, 8, | 


224 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


powér of the Holy Spirit is proved by the phenomena 
of grace, while all the sacred mystery of its operation 
is beyond the discovery of any human mind. Men are 
called upon to accept the fact in each case, and to wait 
for the explanation of the mystery. Granted the possi- 
bility of the miracle, it is for man to seek to know the 
condition upon which it is wrought. This Nicodemus 
felt, and hence his question: How can these things be?” 
The answer is perfectly clear: And as Moses lifted up 
the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of 
Man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth may in Him 
have eternal life." Man needs life. The Son of Man 
is to be lifted up that it may be provided. Pointing this 
seeker to the kingdom, the Master sets His Cross as the 
gate of life. On the place of awful uplifting, through 
the mystery of His Passion, He would liberate His life 
that this man might share it. The life-giving work of 
the Spirit is to be that of communicating to souls, dead 
in trespasses and sins, the very life of the Son of God. 
This can only be done as the corn of wheat dies to live, 
and there is no new birth for individuals or the race, 
but by the death of the Son of Man. That death has 
been accomplished, and now whosoever believeth may in 
Him have eternal life. The one condition of life is that 
of belief. What this belief is has explanation in the 
opening part of this Gospel: But as many as received 
Him, to them gave He the right to become children of 


2John iii. 9. ? John iii. 14, 15. 


a YE MUST BE BORN ANEW 225 


God, even to them that believe on His name.1 Here 
two terms are used in explanation of each other. To be- 
lieve on Him is to receive Him: to receive Him is to 
believe on His name. To believe is the condition upon 


which the Holy Spirit imparts the life by the coming 


of which old things pass away, all things are new. 
Thousands believe in the historic Christ, and are yet 
dead in trespasses and sins. No weak trembling soul 
in all the centuries has ever yet believed on Him in the 
sense of receiving Him as the Way, the Truth, the Life, 
with unquestioning surrender and abandonment, but im- 
mediately the new life has been imparted. In this, as in 
everything, God is a God of method, and this is His 
law of grace, by observance of which man appropriates 
the blessings of the Cross. 

Ye must be born anew.’ Apart from this there is no 
escape from the corruption that is in the world by lust.* 
Save through this, there is no becoming partakers of the 
Divine nature. While living in the full tide of spiritual 
possibilities, men shall yet pass through the years of pro- 
bation barren and dead, unless they surrender to the 
Infinite Love; and receiving Him Whom they crucified 
in blindness, become heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Christ.* 


4John i. 12. ?John iii. 7. *2 Pet, i. 4. * Rom. viii. I7. 


XIX 
BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 


HEY fall far short of the truth who speak of the 
filling of the Spirit as the privilege of believers. 
The word of Paul Be not drunken with wine, 
wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit,* is a present 
imperative, being of the nature of a command, rather — 
than a counsel of perfection. Not merely for an elect 
few, but for all those born of the Spirit, the will of God 
is that they should be filled with the Spirit. And the 
necessity for this filling is proved by the fact that, apart 
from it, there can be no full Christian life, and no pow- 
erful Christian service. 

The apostle declares that no man speaking in the 
Spirit of God saith, Jesus is anathema; and no man can 
say, Jesus is Lord, but in the Holy Spirit.2 The Lord- 
ship of Jesus is the basis of all Christian life. The 
Christian graces and virtues all spring from the recogni- 
tion of that Lordship, and from absolute surrender 
thereto. It is only as man is born again of the Spirit 
that he can call Jesus Lord; and it is only as he is under 


Api evs) 183), 2% 2 Cor. ab hers 
fc 226 


BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 227 


the perfect dominion of that Spirit that he can live under 
the Lordship of Jesus. 

Not only is this true with regard to the first step in 
life, but also in reference to the whole subsequent. 


course. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, - 


longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meek- 
ness, temperance: against such there 1s no law.1 These 
are the evidences of Christian character looked for in all 
those who profess to belong to Christ, the things that 
differentiate between a Christly and a worldly soul. 
There can be no manifestation of them save under the 
perpetual control of the Spirit. Neither is it possible to 
work for God except in the energy of the Spirit. There 
may be a great deal of what appears to be Christian 
work, but it is absolutely devoid of power unless thus 
energized. 

No man can live the Christian life, and no man can 
serve in the Christian dispensation, save as he is filled 
with the Spirit. 

It is, then, of urgent importance that there should be 
clear understanding of the law which governs this fill- 
ing. That there are scores of Christian people who are 
not filled with the Holy Spirit is an all too evident fact. 
Bring that cluster of the wonderful fruit of the Spirit 
side by side with the actual life and achievement of 
scores of professing Christians, and this fact must be at 
once confessed. 


*Gal, v. 22, 23. 


228 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


To Christian people who really want to be such as 
God would have them be, who are tired of all that is 
merely formal and mediocre, and are anxious to live in 
the will of God at all costs, there is no question of more 
importance than that of the conditions upon which the 
believer, born of the Spirit, may live that life which is 
filled with the Spirit. 

These conditions are of a twofold nature,—the initial, 
and the continuous; that by which blessing is first real- 
ized, and that by which it is maintained. 

The first is that of abandonment. 

The second is that of abiding. 

The word abandonment is used intentionally. Conse- 
cration is a great word, but it has been so much abused 
that it has lost much of its deepest significance. This 
word abandonment is perhaps out of the ordinary run of 
theological terms, but it is full of force. Wherever 
whole-hearted, absolute, unquestioning, positive, final 
abandonment of the life to God obtains, the life becomes 
filled with the Spirit. 

The thought is contained in Paul’s words: Neither 
present your members unto sin as instruments of un- 
righteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive 
from the dead, and your members as instruments of 
righteousness unto God.1 The whole life, according to 
this conception, is to be handed over to the control of 
God, in order that, through that life, His will may be 


2 Rom. vi. 13. 


BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 229 


realized, His work may be done, His plans may be car- 
ried out. That is the abandoned life. 

There are two passages which bear on this subject. 
The first reads: Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in: 


Whom ye were sealed unto the day of redemption. Let — 


all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and 
railing, be put away from you, with all malice.t This 
is the abandonment of the life for purification. Aban- 
donment to God is not merely the act of enlisting as sol- 
diers to fight battles—that is a secondary matter; it is 
first the abandonment of self to the Spirit of God, that 
He may purify and cleanse from everything that is un- 
like His own perfection of beauty. 

The apostle did not say: Put away bitterness, and 
wrath, and anger, and clamour, and railing. The be- 
liever is not called upon to put these things out of the 
lite: that is not the New Testament conception of 
purification. He said: Let these things be put away. 
The verse preceding explains the responsibility: Grieve 
not the Holy Spirit. The work of putting out of the 
life this unholy brood of evil things—bitterness, wrath, 
anger, clamour, railing—is not man’s work. Man is to 
let Him accomplish it. 

The second passage is as familiar as the first: I be- 
seech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to 
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable 
to God, which 1s your reasonable service.? This is an- 


2 Eph: iv. 30, 31. .7 Rom.. xii, 1; 


230 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


other aspect of abandonment. It is not merely assent 
to purification; it is also the presentation of the whole 
being to God for sacrifice. There are very many who 
seem to imagine that the apostle is calling Christians 
to sacrifice themselves to God, but he is rather calling 
upon them to present themselves to God as a sacrifice, 
which the High Priest will lay upon the altar. The 
abandonment asked for is a twofold one,—first, aban- 
donment to purification by the Spirit; and, secondly, 
abandonment of the whole being to Jesus Christ, that 
He may offer it to God. 

The theory seems easy. The practice is a very defi- 
nite thing. The life which is thus abandoned to God 
for the filling of the Spirit is a life that has given up its 
own plans, and purposes, and hopes; and has taken 
instead the plan, and the purpose, and the hope of God. 

If God wills to alter what appear to be Divine ar- 
rangements for to-day, so that the desire and the hope 
of to-day are disappointed, the follower of the Master 
should yet be able to say: J delight to do Thy will, O 
my God.’ The will of God should be the supreme mat- 
ter, beyond the doing of which the soul should have 
no anxiety. How often men promise God that they 
will do certain things if He will do something for them! 
—an iniquitous attempt to bargain with the Most High, 
which is very popular, and as old as Jacob. 

The difference between the Spirit-filled life, and the 

1 Ps. xl. 8. 


BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 23% 


life that is not filled with the Spirit, is the difference 
between a life abandoned wholly to the will of God, and 
a life that wants to have its own way and please God 

‘Abandonment i is that of which it is most easy to 
a and yet it is the one thing from which all men — 
shrink. Men are quite prepared to sign pledges, to do 
any amount of work, even to sign cheques or give 
money, if only God will let them have their own way 
somewhere in their life. If He will not press this busi- 
ness of abandonment, if He will not bring them to the 
Cross, they will do anything ; but Hee draw back from 
the place of death. 

Yet it is only in that place that the Holy Spirit is 
able to flow out into every part of the life and energize 
it, until in all conduct Jesus is crowned Lord, and the 
fruit of the Spirit is manifest in character. Nothing 
can take the place of abandonment. Some there are 
who attempt to put prayer where God has put aban- 
donment. Others profess to be waiting until God is 
willing to fill them. Both are wrong! While they 
think they are waiting for God, the fact is God is wait- 
ing for them. At any moment, if they yield to the 
Spirit, He will sweep through every gate and avenue 
and into every corner of the life. 

The filling of the Spirit is retained by abiding in 
Christ. A great deal has been said about abiding, and 
many have endeavoured to define the term. Some 
beautiful definitions have been given, mystical and poet- 


232 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


ical, and yet for the most part out of the reach of the 
ordinary life of the believer. 

It is well, where possible, to have definitions of Scrip- 
ture from Scripture; and John gives a definition of what 
it is to abide in Christ: He that keepeth His command- 
ments abideth in Him, and He in him Nothing can 
be simpler. The mistake which may be made is that of 
trying to explain that passage until it is robbed of its 
simplicity. The definition is the very embodiment of 
clearness, and may be stated in a brief sentence: To 
abide is to obey. 

The commandments referred to are given in the pre- 
ceding passage; but are spoken of there, as one com- 
mandment, having two applications: And this 1s His 
commandment, that we should believe in the name of 
His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another * The whole 
law of Jesus Christ is summed up in that verse. The 
commandment is that of faith and love. Faith is the 
absolute dependence of the soul upon Him, and the 
consequent life of obedience to Him. Faith in the Lord 
Jesus begins when a guilty soul submits itself to Him 
for pardon; but it does not end then. It is not by that 
one act of faith that men abide, but by continuing in the 
course begun, by making Him Lord always,—by en- 
tering into no transaction of business or of pleasure 
without taking Him into account; by treating Him as 
the ever-present King, by believing in Him; and by 


+ yCJohn aii. 240:.-'* 1. John ili. 23. 


BE ‘FILLED WITH THE. SPIRIT 233 


saying to Him, at all seasons and hours end every- 
where: Master, is this Thy will? Faith in Him is be- 
lief on His name at the beginning for pardon, and con-_ 
stantly for purity and direction. Then every moment 
the soul lives in dependence upon Christ, and is able to _ 
sing: 

I dare not take one step without Thy aid. 

Not faith merely, but love: That we should... 
love one another. That is the life of service. He that 
keepeth His commandments abideth in Him. The con- 
ditions for abiding in Him are those of always believing 
in Him, always loving some one and serving some one. 
If men are filled with the Spirit by abandonment, they 
continue filled with the Spirit by abiding. 

While it is true that there can be no full life and no 
powerful service apart from the filling of the Spirit, it is 
equally true that the Spirit-filled life must manifest the 
fruit of the Spirit and be powerful in service for God. 
These broad principles, however, are granted. The 
present subject is rather the conscious experience of a 
soul that is filled with the Spirit. Here a word of warn- 
ing is necessary. A vital mistake is made by persons 
who formulate a code of sensations, and wait for them 
as evidences of the Spirit’s filling. Some expect a mag- 
netic thrill, some an overwhelming ecstasy. These 
experiences may be realized, they may be utterly ab- 
sent. Others wait for an experience like that of some 


13 John iii, 23, 24. 


234 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


one else. That they will never have. There are many 
people who have read the Lives of good men like 
Fletcher of Madeley, Finney, and Bowen, and who ex- 
pect to realize just what these men describe. Such 
hopes are doomed to disappointment. It may safely be 
said that the experience of the filling of the Spirit is in 
no two cases exactly identical, any more than the con- 
sciousness of ordinary life can ever be the same in any 
two persons. There are points of resemblance, great 
fundamental facts which are identical; but in the light 
and shade there is variety. Surely, if this be true of 
ordinary life, it is also true of the higher spiritual bless- 
ing. The Holy Spirit fills one and another. The real- 
ization of the one differs from that of the other. 
There are diversities of workings, but the same God. 

There is, however, a common consciousness to those 
who are Spirit-filled. It is the consciousness of Christ. 
The Holy Spirit, coming in His fulness, will give men. 
to know the Lord as they never knew Him before. The 
consciousness of Christ in the experience of believers 
will be as varied as are the saints themselves; for the 
full consciousness of the Head can only be realized by 
the whole Church. His greatness is such that He can- 
not give Himself wholly and utterly and ‘finally to an 
individual; He needs the whole Church for the dis- 
play of His perfect glory, and the unfolding-of the 
majesty of His Person. Let no one narrow down his 


23 Cor. xii. 6. 


BE FILLED WITH THE SPIRIT 235 


consciousness of the Christ to the consciousness of any 
single person. He is one thing to one man, He is an- 
other thing to another, but the men are united in the 
fact that it is the Master of Whom they are all con- 


scious by the Spirit. The Lordship of Jesus as a reality, _ 


is the first result of the Spirit-filled life. 

It follows that Christ’s victory over evil will be shared 
by His people; His point of vision of the affairs of men 
and the needs of men will be theirs also; and the im- 
pulses of service which bore Him to Calvary, against all 
opposition, and made Him Victor in its darkest hour, 
will likewise be their impulse of service, so that no 
longer will they offer Him the service of mechanical 
arrangement; but in the passion of His life they will 
serve, even though that be a consuming passion, as it 
was with Him. 

Again, Christ’s revelation of God to men will in 
measure be their revelation of God to men. As the 
Spirit fills the children of God, He will reproduce in 
their lives such likeness to Christ, that men, seeing 
them, will begin to understand Him, and be led into a 
clear apprehension of the glory of the Father. 

This subject brings all to the point of personal re- 
sponsibility. The whole study culminates here for the 
individual. That Divine Spirit Who worked in crea- 
tion, who was the Spirit of revelation and of service 
through every age, dwells now in each believer. The 
individual question is whether He is indwelling in all 


236 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


His fulness. Or is He grieved and quenched by dis- 
loyalty to His government? If that has been the case 
hitherto, let the whole life be yielded to Him, that He 
may reproduce the Master Himself, to the glory of God, 
and for the good of men. 


XX 
RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 


EW privileges always bring new responsibilities ; 
and it follows, necessarily and naturally, that 
these new responsibilities create new perils. If this 
age is the most favoured in the history of men, it 
has therefore to face greatest and gravest perils. They 
are the perils of resisting, grieving, and quenching the 
Spirit. The terms do not refer to the same danger. 
There are those who have not resisted the Spirit who 
yet are grieving Him; there are also those who have 
not resisted and have not grieved Him in the sense in 
which the apostles used the word, who are neverthe- 
less in perpetual danger of quenching Him. The peril 
of resisting the Spirit is that of those who are not born 
again; the peril of grieving the Spirit is that of those 
who, born of the Spirit, are indwelt by Him; the peril 
of quenching the Spirit is that of those upon whom He 
has bestowed some gift for service. 
To Nicodemus Jesus said: Ye must be born anew.} 


4John iii. 7. 
237 


238 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


That refers to the first act of the Spirit in man. To the 
woman of Samaria He said: Whosoever drinketh of the 
water that I shall give him shali never thirst; but the 
water that I shall give him shall become in him a well 
of water springing up unto eternal life.t That refers 
to the second aspect of the Spirit’s work in the believer, 
as a perennial and perpetual spring. To the crowds at 
the feast He said: He that believeth on Me, as the 
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water.? That refers to the work of the Spirit, in 
its outflow through the believer, for the refreshment 
and renewal of other lives. 

The three aspects of the Spirit’s work, regeneration, 
indwelling, and equipment, reveal the perils of the dis- 
pensation. 

In reference to regeneration the peril is marked by 
the word resist. In reference to indwelling the peril is 
marked by the word grieve. In reference to equip- 
ment for service the peril is marked by the word quench. 

The first of these words occurs in the defence of 
Stephen. After having enumerated the acts of rebellion 
which had characterized the history of his people, he 
exclaimed: Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart 
and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit. Resist- 
ing the Holy Spirit consisted in a determined hostility 
to His purposes and work. At the moment it was not 
always apparently wilful; the sin lay in the fact that 


John iv. 14. *John vii. 38. * Acts vii. 51. 


RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 239 


they did not perceive their opportunity when it came. 
When his brethren sold Joseph, they did not under- 
stand that they were selling their deliverer into slavery. 
It was a sin of blindness. When the people failed to_ 


understand Moses, and refused him, and murmured | 


against him, they did not comprehend all the Divine 
mission for which he was raised. They were hostile to 
the work of the Holy Spirit of God, and their hostility 
was the result of blindness. Resisting the Holy Spirit, 
therefore, is not necessarily wilful—it may be the result . 
of blindness; but when God deals with men, He takes 
into account that which causes the blindness, and where 
the cause is of their own creation, He holds them re- 
sponsible. Jealousy and hatred blinded the brethren of 
Joseph to his true position; and the same spirit of 
malice lay at the root of the opposition to Moses. They 
were blinded, and out of the blindness grew the hos- 
tility. The reason for the blindness was disobedience 
to the heavenly vision at some earlier point in their 
history; and for that disobedience they were guilty. 
Men need perpetually to examine themselves as to 
whether they are in the faith. There are many who 
would vehemently deny the charge of being hostile to 
Divine purposes, whose lives are out of all harmony with 
the movements of the Spirit. He Who has come to 
set up in the heart of man the kingdom of God, He Who 
has come to bring righteousness and love into human 
lives as forces that transform and transfigure, has not 


240 THE-SPIRITIOF-GOD 


yet been able to accomplish these purposes in them. By 
so much as that is a fact the Holy Spirit is being re- 
sisted. To the Corinthians the apostle wrote: Try your 
own selves, whether ye be in the faith. It is a solemn 
warning, occurring as it does after the expression of 
a fear on his part: J fear, lest by any means, when I 
come, I should find you not such as I would, and 
should myself be found of you such as ye would not; 
lest by any means there should be strife, jealousy, 
wraths, factions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, 
tumults.2 The whole unholy brood may be summed 
up in the one thought of lack of love. Among the 
things of which the apostle was afraid, there were none 
which were deeds of open impurity. It was the spirit of 
faction, schism, and division that he feared; and his 
fear gave rise to his warning. Try your own selves, 
whether ye be in the faith. That was a word spoken, 
not to the outside world, but to professing Christians. 
The question as to whether men are resisting the 
Spirit, as to whether they are a part of the force 
that is hostile to the Spirit in the world, is to be settled, 
not by the judgment that neighbours pass, but by the 
judgment that falls clear as the light and searching as 
fire, when in the place of loneliness with God the prayer 
is sincerely offered: | 
Search me, O God, and know my heart: 


Try me, and know my thoughts: 
And see if there be any way of wickedness in me.° 


att of. iis use S23) Cor.) KIB aoe NO. PS. CXR KING 23) oa. 


RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 24! 


There is perpetual need for rigorous self-examination 
as to whether those professing loyalty are still in the 
faith ; for it may be that, by disloyalty to God, the mind 
has been blinded to the correct perception of the work of 
the Spirit; and without intending it, there may be hos- 
tility to His work, there may even be resistance to the 
Holy Spirit. 

The second peril is that of grieving the Holy Spirit. 
There is no word in the New Testament that more 
clearly and beautifully reveals the tenderness of the 
heart of God. The word means literally, to cause sor- 
row to. Dr. Beet has said that the word grieve is one 
of the most_striking instances of anthropomorphism in 
the whole Book. It certainly is a remarkable instance 
of the way in which God graciously uses the being of 
man for the illustration of His own activity of affec- 
tion and thought. There is a sense in which it is diffi- 
cult to think of God as sorrowing; and yet He stoops 
to this great word, to teach that it is possible for a child 
of His, indwelt by the Spirit, to cause sorrow to His 
heart. Let no one minimize the value of the word. 
Grieve not, do not cause sorrow to, do not make sad 
the heart of God. » 

The words occur in the midst of a most magnificent 
argument concerning the high calling of God for His 
people, and are connected with the statement: In Whom 
ye also, having heard the word of the truth, the gospel 
of your salvation,—in Whom, having also believed, ye 
were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which its 


242 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of 
God’s own possesssion, unto the praise of His glory.* 
The Holy Spirit seals the believer unto the day of re- 
demption. When He takes up His abode in the heart 
of the trusting soul, it is not only for present blessing, 
it is also for a consummation. When the Holy Spirit 
takes possession of a soul and imparts life, that life is 
the prophecy and the promise of an eventuality. For 
those who are children of God, the full meaning of the 
fact is not yet: Beloved, now are we children of God, 
and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We 
know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like 
Him.2 What the glory of the coming One will be, none 
can imagine; nor can they yet know what will be the 
glory of the children of God, when the work of God is 
finished in their lives. The Holy Spirit within, seals 
unto that glorious issue. The sealing consists not 
merely in setting a possession mark upon the property, 
but in the outworking in the life of all the beauty and all 
the grace of Christ Himself. As when our blessed Lord 
was transfigured upon the mountain it was not the 
transfiguring of a glory that fell upon Him, but that of 
a glory that was already resident within Him, outshin- 
ing through the veil of His flesh,—so, when the Spirit 
seals, He does so by the gift of life, which is able to 
transform the character. 

Out of that second aspect of the work of the Spirit 
grows the second peril. Whenever He is thwarted, 


AEH, i, 13,°14. 7). F) John tiy2, 


RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 243 


whenever He is disobeyed, whenever He gives some 
new revelation of the Christ which brings no response, 
He is grieved. The heart of God is sad when, by the 
disobedience of His children, His purpose of grace in 


them is hindered. Alas! how often has the Holy Spirit 


been grieved; how often has He brought some vision 
of the Master that has made demands upon devotion, 
that has claimed new consecration; and because the 
way of devotion and the way of consecration are always 
the way of the Altar and the Cross, the children of His 
love have drawn back. The Spirit has been grieved, 
because hindered in His purposes ; the day of the saints’ 
perfecting has been postponed, and the coming of the 
kingdom of God has been delayed. It is a very terrible 
thought that the grieving of the Spirit within the 
Church postpones the coming of the kingdom of God in 
the world. In proportion as men are obedient to the 
indwelling Spirit, and allow Him in the whole territory 
of their own lives to have His way, in that proportion 
are they hastening the coming of the day of God, and 
bringing in the Kingdom of Peace. 

The things which grieve the Spirit of God are spoken 
of by the apostle in the section of the Epistle from 
which this warning is taken, and should be pondered in 
solemn loneliness. 

The third and last peril is that described in the words: 
Quench not the Spirit. The word quench has no ref- 
erence to the indwelling of the Spirit for life and de- 


11 Thess. v. 10. 


244 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


velopment in the believer. It refers wholly to His 
presence as a power in service. The word itself is sug- 
gestive. To resist presupposes the coming of the Holy 
Spirit to storm the citadel of the soul. To grieve pre- 
supposes the residence of the Spirit as the Comforter 
within. The word quench presupposes the presence of 
the Spirit as a fire. This suggestion of fire carries 
thought back to the words: There appeared unto them 
tongues parting asunder, like as of fire; and it sat upon 
each one of them.’ Fire was the symbol of power to 
praise, to pray, and to prophesy. Moreover, the context 
of this injunction clearly indicates its meaning. In the 
argument of the apostle two things are linked: Quench 
not the Spirit; despise not prophesyings.* Here, then, 
is the third peril. The Spirit, Who comes upon the be-. 
liever for praise, prayer, and prophecy, may be 
quenched. It is possible that the gift of the Holy Spirit, 
bestowed for service, may be lost; it is possible that 
those upon whom there has fallen, unseen by mortal eye, 
the Tongue of Fire, who have been called by God to the 
place of actual service in the Church, may quench the 
Spirit, and thus lose their power of testimony. 

This is done by reversing the conditions upon which 
the Spirit was received. The apostles first received 
the Spirit of Fire upon the condition of loyalty to Jesus 
Christ. The glorifying of Christ in the life, and the 
obedience of the soul to the word of the Master, were 


2 Acts ii. 3. 72. Thess. ‘v.''19,/ 20: 


RESIST NOT, GRIEVE NOT, QUENCH NOT 245 


the first conditions for the falling of the Fire. That 
included within itself the second condition of human 
helplessness, confessed by their waiting until the Holy 
Spirit came. 3 

There has been much quenching of the Holy Spirit 
by service that does not wait but rushes, and by the 
burning of false fires upon the altars of God. The at- 
tempt to carry on the work of the kingdom of God by 
worldly means, the perpetual desecration of holy things 
by alliance with things that are unholy, the pressing of 
Mammon into the service of God, have meant the 
quenching of the Spirit; for God will never allow the 
Fire of the Holy Spirit to be mingled with strange fires 
upon His altars. What is true of the Churches is true 
of the individual. God has equipped His people for 
service with spiritual gifts. To each one some Fire- 
gift of speech or of influence has been given; but it has 
been lost, when it has ceased to be used in loyalty to 
Christ. Very many men have lost their gift of power 
in service, and have become barren of results in their 
work for God, because they have prostituted a heavenly 
gift to sordid, selfish service, to the glorification of their 
own lives, instead of exercising the gift only for its 
true end. Men have perpetually quenched the Spirit by 
attempting to work in their own strength, hoping that 
God would step in and make up what they lacked. God 
will not come and help men to do their work. He asks 
that they should give themselves to Him, for the doing 


246 THE SPIRIT OF GOD 


of His work. This is no mere idle play upon words; 
the difference is radical. If men make their plan of 
service and then ask God to help them, they may, by 
that very assertion of self, quench the Holy Spirit. 
If, on the other hand, they await the Divine vision and 
the Divine voice and the Divinely marked out path; if 
they wait until they hear God saying, I am going there, 
I would have you go with Me,—then the Holy Spirit 
can exercise His gift in their lives. The Spirit is 
quenched by disloyalty to Christ, or when His gift is 
used for any other purposes than that upon which the 
heart of God is set. Resist not, grieve not, quench not 
the Spirit! 

The deep meaning of these solemn warnings may 
the Spirit Himself reveal to all the Spirit-born children 
of the Father. 


INDICES 


COMPILED BY REV, G. DAVIES, OF ENGLAND 


Ii TEXTS 


TQ WHICH REFERENCE IS MADE 


GENESIS. 

Ch. Ver. Page. 

DO CAMS BPE lan 4, 
Ser ees 52. 
QO: : 

On OOM Ora O 
TGS. 69. 
Bodaese.. 83. 
Neer DoGaae 91. 
6 IAel 38.90! 
Sees 61. 
41, 38, 39...89. 


EXODUS. 
31. 4, 5....90. 


‘ NUMBERS. 


2. CHRONICLES, 
Ch. Ver. Page. 
pA Oita seater be 


JOB. 
26. 12, 18, 55. 


PSALMS. 
8. 4,6....64. 
16.85.4420. 
18. 9-12... .50. 
BOON TUE 53. 
AQ EB RE UN 230. 
50223. 0006 136. 
DLaenreaiies 1s 
Nee saRnsia 77 
104. 30. 


FiB0.n BT: 
139. 23, 24...2408. 


ISAIAH. 


EZEKIEL. 
LO eeOS 


S. MATTHEW. — 


Ch. Ver. Page. 
- 8. 4-11....170, 
16, 17...88. 
(oeifean ed MEY 
Olson 218. 
Vici 6 rape 115. 
DG mae ene 208. 
pL Oe Ace 39, 
S. MARK 
1. 6-8.....170 
BE CAA nee 28. 
LOU oie le 
inka yee 136 
TB WOSsoma ee 17, 
EA GAG ice 181 
S. LUKE, 
el aro 184, 
41, 42...184. 
Glee 184, 
ZI O2 eee 73. 
On Cie ye 97. 
‘ 102, 170, 172. 
21, 22...98., 
Cali earns A 98, 184. 
TGs 74, 
ASE eee Oath 
TT Osasreaie 100, 
NS nee 9of . 
12. 49, 50.,.101. 
PANS Pd ae 200. 
49.00. Alii 
S. JOuN 
WeSMes ee: 


248 


S. JoHN—Con. 


Ch. Ver. Page. 
ae P-An 72 e 
140). 155. 
‘ 26, 27...171 
4 » 38.171, 
ors A 220. 
Suit SOE 
5-8..... vay 
Os eLO seek: 
Mints 218, 225. 
a you 223. 
14515... 224, 
BOON aN 16. 
4. 18, 14...104f, 
De 288, 
MOEN 1388. 
62 8008): 105. 
CME Wines (CE 
Steen 105. 
D227 114, 
14, 16......42, 101. 
114, 119 
1G tee: 
Pepa a IAT} 
LS ee 124, 
25, 26 a 121, 125 
PO ins 9, 40. 
15. panels sab ve 
Leroi 29, 40, 42 
lle: 
AO soy ates 40, 117 
Bares ioe 29. 
8-11.,.. 157 
BEANO) 29. 
14-16... 126, 
20. 21-23.. 108f 
AotTs 
Peeve Onn 
ARN ts 129, 
Se dO Fe, 
Gree F196: 
8 198, -2038. 
2 ar a 208, 244 


3, Se... 

15-18... 154f. 
4, 7-9.... 188. 

Blois. oko: 


INDICES 
AOoTSsS—Con. 
Ch. Ver. Page. 
» 6, 8-5.....188. 
GOL 238 
La bali 190 
8. 21-23.. .178 
O01... i LST 
TTA S179 
TOM BB oe. Apia. 
WD 15-170. 217%8 
13, 9:10, 3.188 
18. 24, 25..180. 
19, 2-6.....180 
omeot sue ole 
ROMANS 
Gl 3. LON RTA, 
ns BL 228. 
Lae as ae 218. 
(Piaeesyorca lif 
Satellite 382. 
19-21, . .59. 
Dolan: 59 
26, 27. .82. 
10. 14; 15. cy 
if aE 229. 
TA Oreos 145, 
PON BOS Nae 41, 
1. CORINTHIANS. 
2.9, 10...44, 45. 
10, 11..82, 48 
BAG Ly: 135. 
A fante ne 143. 
TA Al iteee cece 226 
Sg eats 234, 
Silda doled G4 
AB WOoe ay 135° 
2. CORINTHIANS 
Tp Sie BVO, 194, 
Oe eee Ls 
IQs. oe. 84, 
2 Ae UVa 240. 
AD) Bae ieee 240. 
14......86) 
GALATIANS. 
3. , 27.174, 
y rte Sa AN 84. 
~~ B. 22, 28, 227 


EPHESIANS. 
Ch. Ver. Page. 


13, 14. .192, 242, 


1, 
—~ 2, Brean 18. 
4, 


cS etee 192, 226, 


1. THESSALONIANS. 
=O. 19, 20...244. 

2. THESSALONIANS. 
Be Oy Avec LO2. 
6, 7.....163. 


HEBREWS. 


9.14......6% 75, 
10. 15-17... .31 


1. PETER. 


Sl ae 
SS8 
ES 
& 


@eevees 


242. 
23, 24...282, 233. 
4 Boe TER. 
REVELATION. 


18. 8.......84. 


INDICES 249 


II, PASSAGES 


WHICH ARE MORE FULLY EXPLAINED 


GENESIS. S. MARK. 


ROMANS. 
Ch. Ver. Page. 
Ch. Ver. Page. 


Ch. Ver. Page. 


1. 1-3.....52. Be 20 ees 28. 
Dee le zw 16, 16.,....181. BC el eee 
Dabeceiteo sO0Ls 22f.....59. 
6, 1-3.....90£. pe 229. 
eas . CORINTHIANS. 
80. 4,-5.....90. 19, 10, dae 
NUMBERS. BTL Be. 
6. 24-27...36. 
CORINTHIANS. 
JOB. 
VANS Nira 194 
26, 12, 18...55. 
PSALMS, GALATIANS. 
8, 4-8...,.64f, 2h, 23.227, 
a Pane 50 
104. 30, ent 57 EPHESIANS, 
: veto aoe 242, 
ue eas 18.000 217 
Ca ESE ea aoa 0) 9 LER oy yd fee Ns One) IDET IAT) TRA DS FACED RA 2. 
Beene nsOle 30, 31, .229. 
AQT OR eae 56f I een 4 192. 
ASMAGH nok 
55, 12.,.... 6 1. THESSALONIANS 
Bonk, BLOGs: 243. 
Hin Paleo s agate HEBREWS. 
ZeiSe De etieee 65 
S. MATTHEW. 
1. JOHN. 
Cu oie. 73 
BURL OM se 39 2. 27......194. 


250 


INDICES 


Ill, - SUBJECTS 


ABANDONMENT to God, 2286. 

Abiding in God, 231f. 

Anointing of the Spirit, 104. 

Authority in Religion, Seat of, 
139. 


BAPTISMAL FORMULA, 39. 

Birth. The new, 220. 

Blasphemy against the Holy 
Spirit, 20. 


Curist; Guided by the Holy 
Spirit, 73-76; Lordship a 
226; Mental Culture of, 72: 
Physical appearance of, A 
Teaching about Holy Spirit, 
103f. 

Christianity, Nature of, 213. 

Consciousness of God, Man’s, 


Continuity of Service, 108. 

Cornelius, 138. 

Creation, Second account of, 
66. 

Cross, a Stumbling-block, 199. 


DiscipLes before Pentecost, 


196. a 
Divinity of Holy Spirit, 3o. 


East Winp, The, 56. 
Ezekiel’s Vision, BTL: 


FATHERHOOD of God, 8&4. 

Filling of the Spirit, 1S<3 co- 
incident with Conversion, 
186. 

Condition of service, 189: 

Summary of Teaching on, Tot. 

Fire, Symbol of Holy Spirit, 
102, 103 

Flesh, The life of the, 216, 
219. 


Gop, True Vision of, 223. 


Hoty Spirit; Advocate, The, 
119; Anointing of, 194; Bap- 
eee of, 1698 ; Baptism not 

“ Second ” Blessing, 169; 
Ba of Church Unity, 147; 
Character 4of, 110%. Gom- 
forter, The, 119; Creator of 
Beauty, 61; Defender of the 
Faith, 44: «Director: of 
Order in Nature, 61; Di- 
versity of Workings of, 234; 
Foreign Missions, 164; Gift 


of the - Father, The, “114; 
Grieving the, 192 241; 
Guiding Christ, 97£; Hope, 


The Spirit of, 92; In Nature, 
551; Inspirer of :Church’s 
Service, 150f; Ideal leads 
men nearest to the, 78; Mis- 
sion of the, 122; Old Dis- 
pensation, in the, 83f; Per- 
sonality of, 24; Power of 
the, 199f; Power, Nature of 
the, 206;- Quenching the, 
243f; Regenerative force in 
Nature, 60; Resisting the, 
238f; Restraining Ministry 
of the, 161f; Sealing of the, 
192, 241f; Three Aspects of 
Work, 238; Uses Human 
Arrangements, 201. 


Ip—EAL Man, glory of, 61f. 
Inspiration of genius, 78f. 


Joun, Baptism of, 1726. 

John Wesley, 148. 

Judgment, 161. 

Keys of the Kingdom, 138f. 
LAWLESSNESS, Mystery of, 163. 


Man, Spiritual and Natural, 
76f. 


INDICES 


Matthias, Choice of, 130. 


Men, Compelled by Holy 
Spirit, 88f. 
Men made Instruments of 


Holy Spirit, 87. 
Methodist Revival, 148. 
Missions, Foreign, 164. 


Nature, Holy Spirit in, 55f. 
Nature through God, 63. 
Nicodemus, 214. 


PARACLETE, The, 29, I19. 

Paul, Conversion of, 178f, 187. 

Paul of Samosata, 26. 

Pentecost and the Disciples, 
132f. 

Pentecost, its place in Divine 
Economy, 131. 

Pentecost, the “ second,” 189. 


251 


Personality, 24f. : 
Procession of the Holy Spirit, 
4of. 


“ RE-FILLING”’ of the Spirit, 


193. 
Reformation, The, 147. 
Revised Version, The, 27. 
“SECOND BLESSING, The,’ - 
169, 176, 183, 190. 
Sin not natural to man, 77. 
Socinianism, 26. 
Stars, Number of, 54. 


TRINITY AND REASON, The, 34. 
Waitine for the Holy Spirit, 


1766. 
Witness bearing, 201, 203, 208. 


on a i 

DRT RHEE 

Tug 
eevigit +e 


Ri wee 
Wa Me 


1 


ray er 
kes 
ge 


mete Aaals 
nrat oy) 
Ne hue! 


MI 


fee 
2 


pte Aes 
r* 2 wig 
i PY Go a: 
me 
oS 
: 1 : 
ES F : 


te ay. 


rAUULT 


AP 28 


att 


TEA NNAN 
aga ENN 
Utigpige 
TATRA 


ON 24, 
HIN aN highs 


wet eselap dinky fale Nhe : > Hany ee 
, iy i Ps Qea te 


Wedd : 


Pig 
Shit 


peyyeg ite 


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Sf f RN Poy: 


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Re a : SS : Le piahe ws 


wel 
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ANN 
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